Somebody To Thrill
by Miss Nae Malfoy
Summary: MILITARY FIC: Bella has been asked by her older brother, Edward, to begin a friendship with his friend, Emmett. What started off as a innocent flirting turned into a whirlwind romance. The guys are Navy SEALS, whom are trained to serve and protect. But no one could ever be prepared for the love and difficulty that Emmett and Bella face. The truth might just break your heart.
1. A Sister's Favor

"It's awfully nice of you." Rose smiled at me and patted my small hand for good measure. "It's not all of the time Edward asks of a favor of anyone, especially his little sister." I nodded in agreement. Rose layed back in her recliner and stared out at the oceanview ahead of us, her pertruding stomach showing happily to the world. Even five months pregnant with sore feet and unattending blonde locks, she was still a sight of beauty. I learned early on how beaustiful girls were always on top, even when no one was looking. "But I'll admit, he is worried. Doesn't want you two running away and eloping." She shook her with a wild roll of eyes, as if were the most bizarre thing in the world. Everybody knew _Bella_. She didn't _do_ things like that.

"Yeah, well Ed gets ideas like that sometimes." I chuckled to hide my humiliation. Rosalie was like an older sister I never had when my mom moved away to Australia. Rose and Edward were together from my sophomore year of high school 'till now, a year after my graduation of college. "Where's Sophie?" I wondered aloud.

"She went with her daddy to get ice cream. Seems I'm not the _only_ one who gets cravings around here." She smiled, and it was serene. She and Edward loved Sophie, and I was just as drawn to her. The little hellcat could stir up a firestorm of men when she wanted. "Twenty-one..." Rose sighed. "I remember what twenty-one felt like."

"Thirty isn't so bad." I offered politely, but she only shuddered. "Edward's thirty and young, so just think about it that way." I giggled and gripped her hand tightly in mine. We shared some insane laughter afterwards about college stories and wild nights with friends, though I had not many. A few pranks and beach walks, but nothing too criminalistic.

"We have lived two very different lives." Rosalie suddenly admitted. "And yet, we are connected so thuroughly." And then came her Navy Base Counselour voice. "Fate has chosen something great...and I just know you'll be more than surprised at the hand she's going to give you."

I eyed her with more vigor than I intended. She was a sweet woman that was kind enough to open her home to her husband's little sister on base when I was eighteen. She was kind enough to walk me through all of the "changes of life" that as a late bloomer, I expeirenced in full throttle the summer before coming of age. Rosalie was spectatcular. "I suppose." Was all I could manage. I didn't believe Fate was very fond of me, because she never gave me a second look or thought. I was as normal and klutzy as can be, honestly. "I have to get going now. Have Edward call if he...has any questions." I ended oddly, not really knowing what exactly he wanted me to do.

Edward was a head trainer here at the Navy Base in Coronado, San Diego. Spending eight years as a SEAL and earning enough medals and plaques to fill his wall, he finally gave it up to settle down and do the teaching. I respected him for doing that- and I missed him like crazy when he was away for ungodly times. I hopped into my silver economy car and carefully retracted myself from their tricky driveway and started to my own condo. My brother helped me pay for my condo my first year of University here in SD, and after that, I worked part time with the Naval Spouses of America on base; it was a place where the wife or husband of a deceased, MIA, or wounded Naval Soldier could seek aide from the government. Edward and Rosalie were responsible for setting that up for me. I owed a lot to them. I looked down at my phone, which held a red bubble next to the email icon and nearly burst with excitement.

Emmett McCartney was a wounded soldier during an Iraqi mission, where his whole platoon was shot down, and twelve captured- he was a part of that twelve. I didn't let him know that I knew that, because I didn't want him to be weary. Edward was good friends with this guy, and he knew Emmett needed a silent friend along the way. I was happy to oblige. It wasn't like a cyber romance- he was across the country and we would never be seeing each other. Actually, I had only sent my email the day before, descrbing myself and introducing myself. It was strictly platonic, and we weren't even friends on Facebook yet. Although the Iraqi thing happened four years before, and Emmett was done healing, Ed being the wonderful man he was, was still worried and decided that nothing would help more than to have his little sister become..._pen pals_ with him. Genuis, yes?

I didn't want to know what he looked like, or the stories behind his scars. I only wanted him to heal and recongize a shoulder to cry on. But if he was anything like Edward, he would believe that Navy SEALS didn't cry. Before you were a SEAL, you were a human. I hurried into my house and plopped down on my suede couch. My phone was more eager than I as it downloaded his full email a lot faster than it ever did.

_Miss Isabella Marie Swan_,

_**Thank you for your kindness. I doubt that taking up your time for useless correspondence is fair to you on your end, but I will greedily eat up every second you lend me. So, Coronado? How is that working out for you?**_

_**My buddy's wife used NSA when he was deployed from March of one year to Decemeber of the next. You guys are real heros, you know. And I'm sure, if you're Cullen's little sister, you're the brains behind the whole thing down there? California seems so long ago, I soon have forgotten what the beach feels like.**_

_**Please don't feel as if you have to do this. I have nothing heroic or poetic to tell you, and I know Edward's just worried.**_

_**I am looking forward to your next letter.**_

_**Regards,**_

_**Emmett McCartney**_

_**Sergeant Major.**_

I giggled like a madwoman; I didn't know this man, but he took interest. He didn't care that my ass didn't always fill out my jeans, or that I stuffed my bra in the seventh grade. He only wanted to talk.

_*Dear Mr. McCartney, Sergeant Major of the United States Naval SEALs,_

**Must I write that _everytime_ we speak? It's certainly a mouthful! I appreciate your quick response. I will be honest in saying that I love to write and hear people's stories- coming from *them. So that's different than noontime gossip, yes? You, Mr. McCartney, allow me a dosage of both.**

**You've got a bright aura, and are intelligent enough to understand me. Not even Eddie can sometimes! Thank you for respecting NSA and what we do- not many have the same regards. I adore Coronado and the beaches SD has. When will you visit the beach again? Surely soon? A person cannot let themselves forget what it feels like to bury their toes in the sand, or getting swarmed on for their lunch by an angry mob of Seagulls. That would be just preposturous!**

**I wish to write more, but in fear of boring you to death, I will end it here. Please tell me things about yourself...things I could not look up on Google! :)**

**With Love,**

**Bella.**

**P.S. Call me Bella. All my friends do.**

I shook my head, nearly jumping up and down. Since when did I put "smiley faces" with my sentences? That's what Edward's quarter of a million paid for in college? To ignorantly put a smiley face? But I couldn't contain the smile that his thoughtfulness brought upon me. It was nice to hear a total stranger care for me. I got up and made a quick dinner for myself, listeniing for my phone the whole time. When I didn't receive one, I ate alone like I had been for the past four years and showered. After the refreshing shower, I logged onto my computer and sifted through emails from work.

All of a sudden, an IM chat request popped onto my screen. The screenname was EmMc004, and I could only assume it was Mr. McCartney. I accepted and pulled my hair back, as if I were going to have a serious meeting or something.

***EmMc004: Miracles do happen.**

I raised an eyebrow and reread his statement. _BellaBooks: Pardon?_

**EmMc004: Sending an email and the wait would have killed me. I needed to speak with you, now. You quench the thirst of loneliness.** I smiled and blushed at this. Was I already...connecting with this man? When I groveled over a smart reply, another popped up. **EmMC004**: **I haven't scared you, have I? It was not my intentions, I apoligze, Miss Swan.**

I quickly got to typing, not wanting to give him the wrong idea. _BellaBooks: No, not at all, Mr. McCartney! And please, call me Bella, remember? I am glad that you enjoy my company, I certainly enjoy yours :)_

And there again with the smiley face! Surely he assumed I was fifteen with no life with so many faces? **EmMc004: Then please stop calling me by my last name. It's Emmett, remember? :)**

I bit my lip. He just _smiley_ _faced_ me back. Was that a sign? Did he like talking to me as much as he said he did? I moved away from the keyboard. I couldn't slow down, not now. _BellaBooks: I'll never forget from now on. So tell me, what's your favorite color? Favorite food? Craziest College story?_

I wanted to keep him writing for as long as I could.

**EmMc004: Blue, because in SEAL training, its the only color you ever see. I love a good hamburger. Were you expecting me to admit that I secret thing for Escargo or something? Haha better luck with the next pansy. I didn't really get to enjoy the real college experience. I did the same study course as your brother, in between missions and such. ****But from what I heard in your previous letter, University on campus isn't all its cracked up to be? So, I suppose you and I both came out better people without the crazy parting. Although, I did that all on my own without college and Frat boys. Have you ever attended a wild party? I can't imagine a dainty creature like yourself being there amongst the handsy pricks and sticky-fingered girls. You're just too wonderful, Bella.**

I smiled like a lunatic after reading his drawn-out mantra. _BellaBooks: Dainty, eh? I have to assure you, Emmett- I'm not as breakable as you think. I atteneded few frat parties and even less regular socializing groups. My inexpercience is truely, social crippling._

_Which leads me to my next question. I am not wasting your time or Inbox space with my odd ramblings, am I? I'm sure Mr. Importnt Navy SEAL has so many society debts he must repent every morn that he wakes. I would hate to be the burden to that duty, Emmett._ At first, I ended it with "Mr. McCartney", then changed it to McCartney, then changed it to EmMc004. But I finally decided on just his name. That was easier.

I was going to fetch a glass of water when his reply popped onto my screen two hours later, after much interestng conversation had passed between us. **EmMc004: Bella, you are just about the best thing to happen to me.** He replied sweetly to a question I asked out of curiosity.

I blushed and giggled as a girl who was fiddling with "cyber love" did. _BellaBooks: Wonderful, because you are the same._ And it was true. In my life, things were bland and at a stand still. No boyfriend, no love, no high paying job. Just simplicity...but this Emmett guy- he was complicated, and he created a flipping sensation in my stomach. We shared drawn-out farewells, and spent the next two nights the same way.

On Tuesday, my cousin Angie and her husband Ben were giving birth to another girl and needed me to watch their four daughters. Nannies were a no-no, as Jessica, Jane, Jackie, and Joy only listened to adults that they assumed weren't getting paid for what they were doing. Of course, I would never accept money from Angela or Ben, they still offered and sometimes slipped it in my bag when I wasn't paying attention. The girls loved me, and when they were civil without markers in their hands or trouble on their minds, I got along quite swell with them also. I forgot to pack my laptop in my car when I left to Ben's house and didn't think about it until I was putting Jessica and Jane in the bath, Joy and Jackie to bed. The bathroom and their bedrooms were upstairs, so that made my job a lot easier. I huffed and puffed when I finished washing their hair and let them play for a few minutes. The door to the Music Room was open, and I caught a glimpse of their state of the art computer and flinched. My computer! There was no way I would be able to leave the house to retrieve mine! I dashed into the room, leaving the door open so I could listen for the girls who were having a grand time in the tub.

I tried every password I could think of...it wasn't- Jackie, Jane, Jessica, Joy, Angela, the Bensons. What else? I shook my head and stood from the computer; why the hell would you create a complicated password on something that stayed at your house twenty-four/seven? All of my passwords on my portable devices consisted of "1, 2, 3, 4" or my last name. I could remember something like that! Emmett preferred to IM me, and I doubted he would email me if he realized I wasn't on. That was our lifeline.

So I checked my phone at odd times to see the progress. Finally, I gave in and left it on a counter and took care of the girls. I dried, clothed, and braided their hair for bed and read a story. They dozed off and I checked the other two before going back to my phone. Sure as shit, there was an email waiting for me.

**To My Bella,**

**I waited like an idiot for an hour on the IMM system before assuming you had other events to attend to. Here in North Carolina, everybody knows your name. You're all I talk about...and I'm not sure if that's a good thing.**

**Do I make you feel any degree of discomfortness? Feel free to tell me, and I can lay off. I don't want to overdo this. What exactly are we doing, Bella?**

**Regards,**

**Emmett McCartney**

My hands trembled as i started on a quick reply.

_To Emmett,_

_I apologize. I had to lay the girls down and the baths took longer than I thought! My laptop was completely forgotten also. Would you ever find it in your heart to forgive me? :)_

_You are the very last person to make me uncomfortable- I feel the exact opposite when we speak, Emmett. Believe me. :)_

_I'm not sure what this is. It certainly started off as a simple pen pal system. But I'll be the first to admit that I have gained a friend...or comrad in the least. You turned out to be a lot more interesting than I ever thought. Email me back as soon as you can._

_Love,_

_Bella._

I sent the letter without thinking. "Love, Bella". Would that scare him off? Well, he did address the last letter "To My Bella", so I wasn't too far off, was I?

The reply message was nothing like I expected, but at least it was a reply. "**Can I have your number?"** I stared down at the letters in shock, my hand shaking lightly. I had been asked for my number before, yes, but not so...blunt and openly, as if a long-time friend had just run into you at the grocery store and they wanted your new number. It was casual and dangerous, all at the same time! I added no greeting, heading, nor closing- just a set of 10 digits and a smiley face. What was with those things? They were contagious and I could not help but place them in locations that I knew would bring a smile to his face most. I jumped in fright when my phone vibrated. With a calm breath, I exited out of my emails and went to my texts.

**This is better, Bella**. Emmett's frank comment sent me aback. I didn't know what to text him back, so I didn't. Instead, a few minutes later, a call came in and i answered with a stifled yawn. "Hey, Bells." I blanched. Why was my brother calling? Did Emmett tell him were texting already? Well, not really. I hadn't sent a message back yet. So, just incase...

"Hey, Edward." I perfected a calm voice amist my frazzled nerves.

"Hope it's not too late to call? I just got out of work." I checked the clock up high on teh wall. It was almost nine o clock.

"Are you home yet? Why so late?" I relaxed and laid out on the couch. "And no, it's fine. I'm here babysiting Angela's daughters. Did Rose tell you she went into labor this morning?"

Edward grunted. "Well, the excitement had stopped coming from Angie's pregnancies. She'll have two more after this no doubt, so maybe i'll be giddy with anticipation then." He said mockingly. I only chckled; it was true. ANgela neer had a moment without a baby, or in a pregnant state. "And no, Rose and I are a little rocky right now. She's threatening to move back with her mom in New York. It's always a fight with her; always ends with her wanting to leave. If liviing with me is so vomit-inducing, why doesn't she truely just leave?"

I sighed, not really expecting something like that. I hadn't even noticed they were so at odds with each other. "Living with you is not so simple, Mister Edward. And Rosalie is probably just going through a tough time. Pregnancy is not an easy task, Ed. Perhaps you could suggest a visit with her mother, and that could quench the thirst of her seeing her family and completely deflate her thoughts of wanting to permenatly stay there with her evil mom." I got up and rambled through the fridge for some mocrowavable goodness.

"Yeah, I was thinking along those lines." And even if we didnt share teh same dad, there was a magnetic connection through the phone. "I don't want to be like mom, Bella. I don't my child to have to go between one state to another for visits to their parents, never staying too long in one place."

I held the quiver in my voice. "That won't be Sophie, Edward. You guys will work this out. You've been together too lo0ng not to know how to properly communicate feelings nad issues with one another. Just be patient, and listen. Rosalie can let you know what's wrong."

"Yeah, I'm sure." He quipped quicly, obvioulsy wanting to drop the conversation. "How's my little favor doing? Have you guys been talking?"

I bit my lip; how mcuh did my brother know? "Yeah, and he's a real nice guy."

"Nice?" There was a level of diselief in his statement. "Bella, girls used to drewl over him. And his smooth-talker skills...well, that was how I fianlly got Rosalie on a date. He coached me on how to treat girls, and it worked." I frowned at that. So, was i being swooned and sweet-talked? Or did he really care? I didn't know.

"We have good conversations and such. But it's never anything but platonic. This isn't cyberlove, or something." I teased.

"Why don't you add him to your oh-so-accumulating list of friends? Facebook is the perfect place to get to know each other on another level." Wait a minute...did my brother _want_ us to hook up? Jesus Christ, was he trying to play Cupid? When I questioned him, he only laughed. "No." He smply replied. "But Emmett has been through alot, and he deserves good-quality talk time with a girl like you- someone who won't go exposing his secrets. And someone who isn't after his money. He's a smart dude. Once he finds out just how pretty you are, he'll be putty in your hands." Edward chuckled at that, and a few minutes later he hung up with a swift "Bye, sis".

I was so caught up in Edward's words, I completely forgot to send my own to Emmett.


	2. Rosalie's Departure

**"Good morning, beautiful." **I awoke to the handsome text on my new phone. I sighed, not realizing how deep I was in with this. Two weeks of non-stop texting and a few late night conversations brought us here- me to a point of longing, and he to the point of letting his shield down. I replied with a quick, _Yeah, right, it's morning. I look like an orge. _He would get a laugh out of that, he always did. I never fished for compliments with him. He always gave them freely.

I closed my phone and sighed. This couldn't have been healthy. I needed stability, someone who was present on my side of the country. Not some near-stranger who didn't even know my face. That wasn't what I needed. And, lets not forget the fact that he was a SEAL, and I swore to myself that I would not date a Navy boy. "No eggs, Bella?" Alice's soft carried to my room, where my door was wide open to let the ocean breeze in.

I groaned, hating the fact that I would have to get up sooner or later. "Nope. Haven't gone shopping." I could feel her ears perk up at the mention of shopping. She could make grabbing a few things at a grocery store a gala of a shopping spree. Alice and I had met at a Navy Banquet thrown for a retiring Commander a few years back. Her husband, Jasper Whitlock, was a man striving for that position. The resounding clank of her heels hit the linolem floor as she walked to my room.

"Well, then get your butt up and let's go. I can't have you starving, seeing as your brother isn't here to force you up." I loathed that word right now. _Brother_. Jesus, how I missed him. He left a week ago, not long after we had that phone conversation. Rosa was getting pretty worked up, Sofie was helping in the least as she kept whining for her dad, and I needed his advice. Edward bombarded my flat often, checking on my food supply and made sure I was living in safe quarters. Jasper had to went on this mission with Edward, because that was the only time she was lonely enough to bother me about my eating habits. Alice sat on the edge of my bed and gently wiped away a piece of my hair from my face. "C'mon, Bella. You have to get up. He's going to be fine, I promise." She smiled down at me like a mother- like how my mother should have when I was growing up. I nodded and turned away, hiding the beginning of my tears.

"Can you check my voicemails on the landline? I haven't in awhile." I sent her off so that I had a moment alone. She understood and went to the task immediately. I sat up on the edge of the bed and sighed. _Push it off, Bella. Get up and be productive_. I could hear my brother's voice in my ear. With that, I got up, took a shower, braided my hair, and got dressed for the warm day ahead of me. Edward would be fine. He always was.

Saturday-

Three days. It had been three days since the last text Emmett sent me on Wednesday, the same day Alice raided my house and made me get up. Actually, no on really called me. It was like I was shut off from the world. Alice was bunking in my only spare bedroom, claiming her house was haunted. I rolled my eyes at such a thought. As I got dressed in a light summer dress, I smelt the cooking bacon Ali was making. That was the upside of her bedding in my apartment. That little pixie could cook! I found that I missed Em's little sweet texts and uplifting emails. The emptiness of him was gone. I sent one message in a weak moment, but decided against sending a second one.

Doubt started creeping in. What if he was bored with me? What if he didn't want to talk anymore? What if he got tired of being this fake goodboy and was ready to show his true, evil colors? I shook my head. No, that wasn't Emmett. There was a reason he wasn't texting me anymore. "Wakey, wakey." Alice called out, and that was my signal to go get breakfast. NSA was doing well, and Rose was about ready to take her leave next month so that I could take the reins during the end of her pregnancy. When she was working, I really had nothing to do in my office. She prefered to handle meetings and the official paperwork, me often taggling along right by her side. When she left to be with her family, I would be able to take control and have people tailing me with questions and papers to be filled out.

"I'm going to visit Chamberlaines today and set out some flowers if you'd like to come." Alice offered sweetly. Chamberlaines was where Coronado laid to rest their soldiers; it was one of the few military-only burial sites in California.

I shook my head. "Rose left me a text message that said she had some urgent bussiness to talk about today, so I have to head over to her house. I don't think it's a good idea for you to go alone, Alice." I sent her a stern look. Alice was tiny and pretty- the perfect target for looney guys.

She smiled, nonplussed. "Nonsense. I go all the time." That was where her older brother, Eric, and her dad were buried. All causalties of war, but in Alice's eyes they had made the ultimate sacrifice. "It's like an addiction. The whole thing." She peered down into her cereal, not having a taste for prok but cooked it for me every morning nonetheless. "The drive, the smell of the flowers as I step out, the grass that envelopes the heels of my stillettoes." The girl across from me had a grim smile as she played with the intricate pattern of the spoon she held in one hand. "And the excruiciating pain of the walk to Eric's grave, and then the few more antagonizing steps to my dad's." Alice sucked in her lower lip and bit down hard. "It's like a drug to go out there and see them. Once I go, I feel good. And as soon as my car makes it out the driveway, I want to go back and do it again. That's my only link to them." Alice shook her head.

I reached across the department store bought kitchen table and grabbed her hand. "It's okay, Alice." I soothed her. It was an automatic statement I gave to crying women. That was all you _could_ say. I learned early on that saying "I'm sorry" was just something that angered women. My dad was an indifferent Chief of Police, and my mother was a fleeting gypsy. None of them really ever taught me how to deal with the emotions of a human.

"Yeah." Alice nodded and got up, cleaned her dish, and retired to her room. I hated that sinking feeling- I wish I didn't have to go to Rosealie and deal with her. I wish I could have taken Alice on her sudden offer. She invited me to go with her. According to Japer, Alice didn't offer anyone to go to Chamberlains with her. I huffed and snatched my keys from their stand. This day wasn't starting out so good.

And it didn't get any better. As soon as I walked through the door of Edward's house, I noticed how eerily clean everything was. That was odd. This place always had an array of Sophie's toys laying around, or muddy fingerprints on the wall. I didn't smell anything cooking. _Weird_, I innerly mused. My neice came running to me, a pretty little strawberry dress on with white sandals. She was the epitome of _cute_. "Hey, there." I kissed her forehead and set her down to the ground. She was getting taller and taller everytime I saw her. "Where's your mommy?" She grabbed my hand and led me to the Master bedroom upstairs. I knocked on the door, and when no one answered, I opened it fully. Three large suitcases laid on the bed and two smaller carry-ons were at the foot of the vanity.

My eyes grew wide. All of her glass perfumes and makeup were absent from her stations, and I was pretty sure that I swung open her closet doors, the walk-in space would be completely free. The light in the bedroom's John shut off and out walked Rosalie, an abundance of her hygeinal items in hand. "Sophie!" She snapped. "Go play downstairs." And Sophie did as she was told, hesitantly letting go of my hand. I was utterly confused, and she must have understood the look on my face. "I can't do this anymore." Rose answered softly and tossed all of the items in another carry-on. "All we do is argue, Bella. There's no love, there's no relationship, there's no _him_." She leveled her voice as she sat on the side of the bed and faced me.

"So, where are you going? Why don't you just stay with me-" I offered, but knew there was no room. Hell, I would sleep on th couch and give her the room if that would keep her on base.

"No." She said with a simple shake of her head. My fingers played with the edge of my floral printed romper, and my feet slid around in my khaki suede boots. No heel, of course. I hadn't neccesarrily dressed to help someone move out. I thought this was going to be about NSA or her mother-in-law, and I figured we'd all go get ice cream afterward. But no, this was going way different than planned. "I'm leaving to my mom's. And Sophie... well, I couldn't tell her that I was leaving her dad. I didn't even have the guts to tell her about moving." That was a lie- Rose had guts. Once at a Naval Base party, some girl was getting handsy with my brother and Rose laid one quick punch to the mouth. Safe to say, that wasn't the only time she had gotten into an altercation. But, that was the greatest one of all.

"It's hard, I know it. Just think about it, Rosalie." I gulped. "Ed loves you alot, and Sophie loves you so much. How is Sophie going to react to the change of surroundings-"

"She's not." Rosa quipped. I looked at her, six months pregnant and barely showing. The silver locket around her neck and the track suit she wore was enough to make me think she had this planned out for awhile. "You always told me how hard it was for you when your mom and dad split, as your dad had the stable job and your mother was a whirlwind." I nodded; my mother was just that. Charlie was a head guy in a little town in Washington, and my mom was just passing by when she fell in love. Charlie hadn't known she had a ten year old son with a well-to-do man in California.

Carlisle Cullen was a fancy doctor, with all the right qualities- but nothing good enough for my mom. Before my dad knew it, she was introducing him to her young son when she was three months pregnant with me and almost a year into their relationship. I was almost eight when my mother had enough of the small town and moved to Pheonix with me. I spent summers in Washington, school days in Pheonix, and holidays in California with my brother and his family. Edward hardly ever visited Forks when we were there, and even less when we moved to Arizona. But I loved him. My best memories happened in the summer of my sophmore year with the Cullens, and I first met Rosalie. She was so young then- so wild and carefree. She loved my brother with a passion, but she was attending UCSD and he was in the Navy, stationed in Coronado. That summer I decided to stay with my brother permenantely, and my mother put up no fight. After such a date, Esme and Carlisle took me in as an extra child. I still made it a journey to visit them with Edward on holidays. They lived on the country part of San Diego, where bees swarmed everywhere and trees grew tall. But where was Rose going with this? I begged that she wasn't leaving Sophie with Esme and Carlisle. They would spoil her rotten!

And so would I. But who was counting? "I wanted to leave her with you. I don't know how things are going to happen in New York; you know my mother." Rose smiled softly. Her mother was a well-off widow, but Rose had never touched a penny of her inheritance. "As for NSA, I will still be on board. I am going to apply for a position on the East Coast. Edward should be coming back any day now." Her tone turned bitter. "I don't want her moving around so much, and I can't really keep watch of her with another on the way." She gestured to her stomach. Why did Edward have to accept a mission, without noting his family around him? We thought he left his Commanding Officer days behind him. We were wrong, and now Rosalie was leaving. "I know this is all very sudden, and I'm sorry for putting this on you, Bella. You're my best friend." She wiped a stray tear from her eye. "You've never stole my boyfriend, tried to replicate my outfit, or even rival me for Cheer captain." Rose teased me. That was a line she always told me, maybe to show me how different and close we were. "Please take care of Sophie." She hugged me close to her.

I nodded, feeling a few tears slip from my own vision. This woman taught me everything. She taught me about fashion, cars, life, how to love, how to communicate, how to work things out. And now, she was teaching me how someone moved on, peacefully. My mother and father often brawled loudly, throwing things and souting. I was glad to not have to see that again, with my brother and his wife. And Sophie would not have to see that. "I love you, Bella." She smiled, a true smile that I realized I hadn't seen on her face in awhile.


	3. Darla McCartney

I sat there on the edge of my brother's bed. This was no bad fortune- this was surely left out of thehouse, just minutes ago into her blue, awaiting taxi- and her expensive perfume still stayed in the air. How was I supposed to tell Edward? How was I supposed to tell Sophie? My fingers, painted a thin shade of nude, ran up and down my face in frustration. I tried my hardest to always stay out of my brother's private life. And now here I was, stuck in the middle of this hot mess. "Auntie Bella?" Sophie's soft voice broke me former my cage of utter contemplation.

I beckoned her to me. "Yes, girlie?" She had big, beautiful blue eyes like her mother. Her tamed locks of bronze were scooped into tight pigtails bounced as she sat on my lap.

"Why did my mom go?" Shit. That was a hard question I was hoping to avoid. But she was just like her father, so darn observant of everything around her. And I was such a bad liar that even she could tell when I was fibbing. I knew I should have at least tried to lie to her. As an aunt, I should have said something that kept five year olds content.

"Because this isn't the life for her. Your mom's tired and stressed, and your daddy isn't here to help. Mommy left for some time off." I summized, and watched her tiny face for any signs of brinking hysteria.

"Is she coming back?" Again- had my mother and father taught me how to be a proper human with healthy people emotions, I might have learned to answer small children's questions with appeasing answers. I was twenty-one, Edward almost turning thirty-one, ten years older than me. He knew how to console people. I shook my head, holding back the sad grin of desperation. Sophie held my neck tightly and breathed heavily onto my cheek. "But I have you." She whispered, and that was true. She most definetly had me until the end of time and then back. I would always be right there with her.

Sophia Sabelle Cullen was a young girl whom knew how to put things into perspective, and topple that with her inability to show weakness (especialy at such a tenderage), and you had the perfect child. I knew that without Rosa here, NSA's Coordinating Administrator would take absolutely everything over and leave little for me to do. Rose usually stood up for me and gave me my share of work, but she wouldn't be there to play favorites with me anymore. I had wanted to run all of it when Rose would be on her Maternity leave, but with Ed and Sophie under my belt of responsibility, I didn't see that happening. "I would always be here for you, little Soph." I kissed the top of her nose, promising to make it all better. I knew just the person to call for help. She would help me escape my selfish tears.

**Emmett POV-**

I needed this- the thrill of being on a mission. Thrills got me going, and they made me feel like a real man. My application foran instructing position in Coronado was pending, and this would just be icing on the cake to prove to my surperiors that I belonged in the Navy, with the Navy, that I lived for the Navy. Even if I had no real _thrilling_ desire for the SEAL work anymore. I just wanted to be close to Bella. That girl... she often plagued my mind. It was always about her these days! And I loved it- someone to focus my thoughts and energy on. I was one of the two Arms specialist in the Hum V, and I was riding with Commanding Officer Cullen. I didn't mind not hailing my own title of CO; after my last mission, which injured both my body and pysche, I didn't really fancy that title. It was too much responsibility- too much guilt. We were considered the bomb squad here in Bangladesh, and there wasn't another minature platoon like us for a few hundred kilometers. "I thought you were on off-duty?" Edward's blond friend, drawled in his down south twang.

Ed glanced at us from his rearview mirror. Jas and I sat in theback seats, Marty Carson (the second Arms Specialist) sat in the range hammock, half of his body in the vehicle, half of it patrolling atop the car, and Riley Owens, a Petty Officer, sat in the passenger seat. I didn't much favor this place, and it sure didn't like me anymore than I liked it. So far, it seemed the tips theNavy had recieved were just little distractions. Bangladash was clear, so far. "I wasn't discharged after Iraq, if that's what you mean. I pick my missions carefully, and stay on light duty when not on the field." And when I said I picked my missions carefully, I meant that I only ever went on them when Edward Cullen or my other close friend, James Knight were CO. I trusted them with my life.

The ride became less bumpy when Ed made a sharp turn. "You shouldn't be here. You should be back home, kissing your wife or eating your mother's cooking. Not here." Marty spoke up. I trusted the kid (he was about Bella's age). He was wise. But right then, he wasn't minding his own bussiness. Had I been four years younger, I might have smashed his head against the bulletproof glass window. But the field accident changed me... for the better.

I chuckled harshly. "No wife, no mother. Just me and my dad- who never goes out into the world."

"But we've all got something to go back to." Ed replied cooly, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. We had gotten into an alterication (physical, of course) during Hell Week back when we were training, and not friends. I knew his strength, he knew mine. "Even if we shouldn't have ever even left in the first place." And I knew he was talking about his woman, Rosalie Hale. I was surprised to be updated by the Colonel of my base in North Carolina, that Edward had accepted a mission. As a light duty Officer and a retired CO turned Instructor (in Ed's case) missions were completely voluntary and few and far in between. The Navy treated people like me like liabilities. Soldiers who were damaged, yet capapble.

"Count yourself lucky that you don't have much at home to miss." Riley kept his vision trained straight ahead, his gun carefully positioned, but directed his words to me. "I've got three sons and a wonderful new girlfriend, worrying her ass off for me."

"One beautiful, blue eyed wife ready to love and loss me at any moment." Jasper added. It seemed we would tally all of the things we could lose. I didn't like this.

"A pregnant fiance and a Catholic mother." Marty forced a strangled chuckle with that.

"Gorgeous blond wife, a daughter so full of happiness and hope for the world, and a sister with aheart big enough to love anyone who would love her back." And with that, I dragged my eyes along to Edward. His dark black glasses meticulously in place, I would never how he felt saying something like that. I made an arrangement with Bella; a ridiculous one, on her part. We would not exchange photos of any sort, for my sake only. I didn't want her to know about all of my facial scars, accumulated from twelve years in the Navy,and that one mission gone horribly wrong. The one most prominant was one that began rightabove my left eyebrow and sliced right down the middle of my cheek, ending right above my dimple. If I could grow hair in the Navy, it wouldn't be available to scruntinizing eyes. The tissue never healed, even if the wound had.

I cheated on our arrangment long before she and I had ever began talking. Edward always showed off pictures of his little sister. The last one I saw before Edward left back to California was her picture at prom in some highschool in San Diego. She was on the arm of some skinny, dark boy. I would always remember her inscription on the back: A shame you weren't the one to take the picture, brother. But Rose cried, and so did Esme. I miss you, please be safe. And his name is Jake, no he's not my boyfriend. Love, your baby Bella. She was smiling brightly at the camera, the background being a sunny sky in a col de sac neighborhood. That was on our Columbian mission, five years ago. It was sent in a short manilla envelope, signed in her pretty handwriting. This time, we weren't allowed mail. We were only in Bangladesh for a few more days, anyway. I cleared my thought, remembering the 5x10 picture I peeked at earlier that day in the streets of thevillage we were patrolling. She was alot more curvy, with a thick waiste and an ample bottom. Rose was a few months pregnant, and his little girl was his exact twin. It seemed to be a sort of Christmas card. When I jokingly asked why he wasn't in it, he replied with a "I didn't want to ruin the girl's beauty," and beautiful they were.

I would be the very last person Bella would want to take pictures with. She would know why when she saw me. If she ever saw me. And even if I itched to meet her, I would never. Once she saw my physical appearance, she might chnage her mind. I still got plenty girls, albeit the scar. But this Bellla... she was so pure, and pretty. How could I taint her by having a lost little boy following her around- disastrous mark and all? And before I had the notion to smile or frown at such a vision, the Arms Hummer around me collapsed within itself. Fire- I could remember a loud series ofc clicks, and then fire everywhere. Gibson...my Autistic dad. I thought about his obsession with rawhide horse saddles and gold colored buttons. Who would want to take care of an old, balding man of timidness with extra special needs?

I was minutely aware of someone- Marty, I think, screaming into our dispatch radio for help. He used every code we were ever taught, and relayed the message in every language our squads were using. I assumed I groanedand harshly attempteed to move. I couldn't see, I could barely hear. A noise like a thousnad fists hitting the eroted wall of a canyon resounded, and then I felt gentle hands grasp my shoulders. The sandy/rocky terrain we were driving on just minutes before housed the gentle footsteps of a female medic and the careless stomps of a male medic. I heard the unmistakable crunching of metal. Under my head, I felt the roughness of the unpaved road, not the clammy confines of the Hum V. Who was trapped in the car? Surely we flipped. Who had flown out, just like me? But now I could see the sky, unrealisticly blue- not grey and smokey like usual. And beneathe my bleeding fingers, I felt freshly mowed green grass.

I inhaled the scent of a stack of ribs roasting on a grill and the sweet Channel Number 5 perfume of my mother. I knew this place, it was the back yard of my childhood house. I lived in a country home off Highway 65 my whole childhood, until I left South Carolina for good when I was seventeen, joining the Navy right out of high school. I moved across the country to Coronado for training, and later moved back to the East Coast, one state away from the memories I had to forget. My dad moved in with me soon after my accident when I was twenty-five, about four years ago. He needed to be taken care of, but he alwyas felt like he was taking care of me. I knew why I was here, in the back yard of this warm home. I was dead. Her face was near mine. "Emmry, my baby. You look darling in your uniform! _So_ like your dad." Darla McCartney kissed my cheek. I looked down at myself; gone was the bloody, charred desert camo gear.

To replace it, my pressed, starched attire- my darling blues, as my mom referred to my father's outfit- which hung in his closet my whole childhood. He was in the Navy when I was young, but never made anything past Special Sergeant. He didn't have half the stack of pedndants and ribbons I did. "Mama." I murmured, feeling a white hot tear soar down my cheekbone. I raised my hand up to my cheek to catch it and possibly destroy it, and felt at the nonexistant scar. Yes! That was a miracle. I was just as she remembered me, because my accident happened long after she died.

"I'm here, baby." She smiled. a bright womanly smile that I hadn't seen since I was twenty-one. "Eight years. Has it truely been so long?' Darla laughed carelessly. "Well, as I say, you can never miss someone-"

"If they never leave your mind." I finished for her. My mama always said that- always tried to teach me patience. She beckoned me to sit with her on a wooden bench- the one her dad made for her. I shut my mind away from Grandpa Rigley- I missed him as much as I missed my mother. She wore her favorite red and black printed dress, the hem just brushing her knees. "Dad misses you." I blurted, not sure why I said that of all things. I stood erect beside her, when all I really wanted todo was fall to the ground in a sobbing mess and hold her frail body against me. I wanted to stay in this moment forever, even if it meant no longer living.

"I'm his best friend, of course he misses me! Neither of you can cook; surely, you haven't starved yourselves with nasty TV dinners?" My mom was always cheeky, it was what made her such a wonderful lady. She pinched the dimple in my cheek and laughed joyously. I never knew how much I missed her laughter until now.

After she told me her ridiculous line of dirty jokes, I placed my hand on hers. "Am I dead, mama?" I needed to hear her say it. I needed to know why I was here, and why I felt different.

There was a moment where I was sure she was going to cry. Why was my mind fucking with me like this? If this was real, and Bangladesh decided to end my life here...well, that would brake apart the sweet Bella I wanted to love, and my dad would surely have no more emotional dependency. I would hate the deciding, almightly _God_ for doing that, too. "No, Emmry. Not even close. You're just visiting until they start your heart again." Her glossy smile shimmered. "Tell your dad that I listen to him sing to me everynight, and I miss his kisses, too." The tiny Darla spared me a look before crushing me in a hug. "I love you so much, Emmry. Please be happy." I felt every muscle in my face and chest contort in pain, and had it not been for my mother, I would have had nothing to hold onto while I felt my body return to its normal state of pain and agony. If I was dying...? My mother could have been feeding me that rubbish and being defibrilated. She, alone, knew my anxiety about death. I didn't believe in the God she so faithfully loved, and I also didn't believe in the recieving Heavens she felt a part of.

Bell. Bella Swan, that name swam in my head like a drowning man in the sea. I swore to myself that if I wasn't dead, I would find happiness. I would thrill my crush- I would _thrill_ her heart out. And maybe, she would love me. That would be my happiness.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Did you guys enjoy it? I am LOVING the reviews and acknowledgment this story is getting! Thank you for reading it, I love writing it :) **_

_**What happens next? Is Emmett dead? Is Edward dead? What about Jasper, Riley, Martin? Will we be hearing more about this Darla McCartney? Will I update in the next few days? **_

_**Questions, Questions, Questions.**_


	4. Sometimes It Hurts Instead

**A/N: **

**This chapter is dedicated to everyone who has lost a brother or a boy that could was close enough to be a brother. They often mean the most to us, even if we only realize it far too late**.

**Also dedicated to all of us diehard sisters who are always doing for our siblings- no matter what the pain or the money. **

Emmett POV-

I blinked my eyes open. The crisp white walls around me were pristine, as were the sheets gathered in my fists at my sides. A gasp of air filled my lungs, and I yanked the clear tube out of my nose and away from my face. No life support? That was a plus. "Ah, welcome back to Earth!" I heard the testosterone-filled voice of my buddy, who taught in Coronado. Is that what I sounded like to everyone else? Muscular and cocky, without even my appearance? Paul slapped my shoulder as I stood up, me not yet looking at him. His brothers Sam and Quil were Navy Vets, both injured beyond useful for the Service- thus forced back to their Reservation. Paul was diehard, though. I blinked rapidly to regain my vision. His dark, bulky body filled up most of the room.

"Where am I?" The last thing I remembered, we were in the Hum V- Edward, Martin, Jasper, Riley and I; we were talking about all the people we missed. And then... and then just _nothing_. My throat was on fire, and so dry that I was sure Arizona had moved into my throat. 

"Sunny California, boy." Paul slammed me again, and I contained the wince. My whole body was sore, all over the place. I trained hard, and mostly pushed my body to max all the time. But this muscle weakness and fatigue... it was something new. "Your fond memories of happy _Coronado_ are surely resurfacing?" He teased, easing his hands behind his head as he relaxed back in a lounging position against the chair. We hated Coronado, mostly. SEAL training was a bitch, no matter how physically or mentally fit you were- _no_ exceptions.

"How long?" Paul was a cool guy I knew from missions, but he was not a close comrade. I only wanted answers from him.

"Three days. They flew you from Europe to NC, and a day later you were shipped here to Cali. We got the best surgeon around." He shrugged, eyeing a gardening magazine on the table. Surgeon? Fuck, what happened to me? Did they have to stitch together my leg? Were my guts popping out of my stomach, or something? As to answer my silent question, he produced an aluminum tray for me to use. I snatched it from his hands and brought it to my eye level. A few minor scrapes along my jaw line, with one green bruise engulfing one eye and a bandage covering one of my old scars. "Nurselady said you busted an old scar, turning the scarred tissue on your face into _double_ scared tissue. Which means..."

"They weren't able to correct it." I finished for him. Great, a bigger scar to cover up the last? How charming that twit God could be.

"I saw the girls cleaning the bandage yesterday. The mark fits you, dude. It's pretty badass to me, way cooler than the last." I had to chuckle at that. Paul really was dumb, but kind. To my own accord, I peeled back the bandage and winced only when the cool air coming through the window danced past the fresh skin. I stood and stretched, making a beeline for the pot. I needed to see this, for real.

And when I saw it, I roared. It was disgusting, and I looked more like a beast than I ever had before. "I look like fucking Frankenstein!" I screamed, gripping the cheap porcelain sink for stability, my IV train following me closely behind. I heard Paul sigh in the room. "Bella's never going to want to see me:" I muttered, angered by the truth of it all. One mission... and just for the stupid _fucking_ thrill I wanted out of it. Look where it got me! And at that moment, it hit car blowing up, us rolling, my body flying out. The medics and then meeting my mom- I shut my eyes; I wasn't dead, but I wish I had been. Life was playing cruel jokes on me. I was far too old for life to keep playing cat and mouse with me.

I walked back in the room. "Where's Edward? What happened to Martin and Riley? What about Jasper? He was in the back with me, and we took it the hardest." I spout out like a high pressure water hose. I needed this answers, and quickly. Paul was an excellent informant, who could receive and send messages as efficiently as any piece of machine could. That was what rendered him so useful on high profile tasks, wherein explicit, top secret information needed to be sent from one troop to another. Hand messengers and foreign communication devices were just not reliable to us anymore. We needed more people like Paul, with great memory and focus.

Paul threw down the mag and lifted his hands up in surrender. "Cool it, Emmett. The rest of the squad is here also, you were all flown in together. No DOA, no MIA. Thus far no one has obtained any serious injuries. At least not physical, anyway." The sorrowful look that passed through his eyes made me blanche. Was this Iraq, all over again? The nightmares, the insomnia, the social isolation all over again?

"I want some of my clothes. What did I come in here with? This shit feels stupid." I flicked the cheap gown off of me, down to my skivvies and without a shirt.

Paul stood up and put his hands out. "Stay in this room, and don't leave. You'll give these little candy stripers a heart attack." He sounded like he was playing, but I knew he feared I would just walk off without a second thought. "I'm coming back with clothes, Em, man. So don't go anywhere."

I waited for ten minutes when my patience ran completely thin. But just when I was ready to stomp right out, Paul came through the door with a small nurse, of dark skin and doe eyes (just like my friend liked them), whom scuttled to me and reprimanded me for moving around in a post-comatose state. After a few tantrums of my own, I received the _okay_ from my daytime Dr. to have the IV removed and to be dressed. Unfortunately, in the short span of minutes I gave my buddy, he was only able to pull a pair of his own clothes from his car; a navy blue V neck and hugging dark indigo jeans. Unlike Paul, I actually had a backside. So, it clearly defined every muscle of my bum. I slipped into his fruity Peri Ellis sneakers and signed some discharge papers.

"Thanks, man. I appreciate your quick help." I muttered as I sat on the edge of the bed, awaiting my stamped and sealed dismissal papers. "Have you received any intel on the whereabouts of the guys?"

Paul looked at me for a long minute, causing me to almost question if he had heard me or not. "This isn't a search and rescue mission, Emmett. This battlefield has a _front_ _desk_." He taunted, causing all of us to smile. Before we left, they bandaged my face little and taught me how to clean it myself at home. Like I would need to learn how to! Wounds healed themselves, that's how humans survived. And as long as I wasn't in a third world country in the next few weeks, it wouldn't have a chance of getting infected.

And the front desk proved to be harder to understand than I ever imagined. "_Edward_. _Cullen_. Do you know what it means to be fired?" A petite girl with a headfull of brunette locks waved a badge in front of the Indian receptionist's face angrily.

"Ma'am, what is your name again?" The brunette stopped midair, red hot steam emitting from her ears like a freight train from hell.

"B-E-L-L-A. S-W-A-N." The girl bit out, and I stopped dead in my tracks. She wore grey cotton shorts and a loose white shirt- as if she had been lounging around the house or sleeping. I checked my watch: ten o clock. "He's my brother!" She hissed, obviously ready to pummel the dark girl to death.

"There are two different last names, and your maiden name is Swan." The dimwitted counter girl set her jaw in a straight line. Was this my Bella? Was I meeting the temptress of my fantasies in a hospital on a rainy night? "And you aren't on the emergency list."

"Yes, well, my mom's a whore. That's no reason not to let me back there to see my brother!" I signaled Paul to intervene. He gave me an odd look, but did so anyway. That was another advantage with him; he knew how to save his questions for a proper time.

"Miss, is everything okay?" Paul was gentle as he touched her arm and regarded the situation at hand. I wanted to step in, so very badly. I wanted to flash my badge around and impress her by getting her in very quickly. But then she'd see my face! I didn't want her to _actually_ see me until the thing was healed some… and perhaps when I could find a plastic surgeon to fix the gruesome blemish.

Bella looked at him in shock. "Who are you?" She demanded. "You know my brother, don't you? Where is he? What's wrong with him? Why won't they let me see him?" The tears in her eyes were more than I could take. I wanted to fix everything for her. I really did. She dug around in her bag. "Look:" Bella flashed another ID card, one that belonged to the Naval Base. "I work with NSA, I'm always on base! Please, I need to see my brother!" She squealed. The strong Greek goddess of a woman was gone, to a now pleading lady.

Paul sighed and sent a look to the receptionist. "Miss Swan has proper identification; she will be allowed to visit her sibling under supervision." The temp sent him a look back.

"I am not a child! I don't need to be supervised! God damn it! I hate this awful place, of which has supremely awful service! I want my brother out of this place and in a high end hospital that can-" Bella's blemish-free face of purity was scrunched up as she cursed everyone standing around her, including the hospital. Her chest heaved up and down with her superfluous rant, and even beneath the loose shirt she wore, I could see her curves. Oh, how I wanted to know every single curve and angle of her body. My hands itched to reach out and touch her. Just once… it would sate my thirst! But I fought back to impulse to pretend to accidentally _bump_ into her.

"Miss, I promise you that Coronado has the very best care available for wounded soldiers." Paul did all the talking, since the indifferent receptionist seemed to not care if the hospital was turned down or not. The night shift of the hospital was not busy at all; I suppose it wasn't exactly the season to fix a wounded soldier? "Perhaps if you can contact his primary emergency caregiver, it will be easier to see your brother."

She shook her head. Man, I loved this fiery little rocket. "Well, she's... its not that simple right now! Things are... well, things are complicated and quite scattered! My friend, Alice, is here! She has already been able to visit her husband! She's back there with him as we speak, and _I_ am stuck at a stupid desk with a dense bimbo and a complete stranger who is trying, but _failing_, to calm me down!" Her flared nostrils seemed to add to her natural sexiness. Her apparent anger seemed to bring out an animalistic part of me.

I decided I needed to step forward, but a gust of wind carrying a striding little woman of chestnut locks and a tall, lean older man with blonde hair. "Bella!" The little woman called worryingly.

"'Mom, dad." She grew a small smile as she rushed to them, greeting them like daughters did. But I knew her real mom was a still breeze somewhere down in Arizona, and her dad was a mustached police officer. These had to be Edward's parents. "They won't let me see him." Bella said angrily, gesturing angrily in our area. The parents instantly sent us glares of contempt.

"What? Why is that?" Carlisle demanded, stepping forward to the woman behind the desk. "I am here on behalf of my son, Edward Anthony Cullen. My name is Carlisle, and his mother Esme." She seemed to be looking something up, and when she found it, she smiled brightly. "I cannot allow Miss Swan because of her lack of relation-"

"This is our daughter." Carlisle said testily, and he looked like a man that wasn't easily spoken over. He reminded me of Edward. "If you have any more obstacles we are rendered to jump through, I will have your nifty little nametag ripped from your shirt and sent on a greyhound." The blonde growled, and the family of three made their way out. I followed Bella with my eyes; she was beautiful, even if horribly infuriated.

"Yikes, hardcore dude." Paul laughed. The receptionist seemed to be embarrassed and paid no heed to us walking through the double doors to follow Ed's parents.

Bella POV-

"Oh, my baby." Esme touched her son's face lovingly, and Ed leaned into his only mother's touch. This strong female was my mother, as I considered her. Rene was… well, she was just some string of fortune and misfortune, awaiting the breaking moment of her whirlwind lifestyle. So, I clung to the stable and loving family of Cullens, whom accepted me with open arms. Carlisle and Esme had driven over an hour to get to San Diego, and did so in record time. I wiped a stray tear from my eye. He was my only sibling, my older brother. And here he lay before, broken and damaged- just what the Navy did to strong men. "You worried us so much when you were gone." Her watery smile made me want to just release all of the things I was holding back. But was this truly the time for confessions? I thought not, so I held it in.

"I'm sorry, mom." He sent her a compromising smile and held her hand, where she clasped it in both of hers and held it tightly to her mouth. Edward looked up at me; he hadn't moved much since we entered the room, just moments ago. His charge nurse warned us that he would be partially deaf for a few weeks, and his left arm would need to be off-duty for even longer to properly heal. It seemed they had flipped in a vehicle of some sort, landing on the left side, where the glass of the window he sat next to shattered and punctured his bicep in various places. When Nurse Samantha had announced all of his problems, Ed cut in with a rude cough and excused her from the room. He was conscious and awake, but had no want for any of us to see him until he was healed. Which could have taken weeks. What, did he expect everyone to just wait until he felt like seeing us? We were his family!

"Hey." I murmured, before remembering he would be without his usually hypersensitive hearing. But he seemed to hear, or in the least knew how to read lips well, and winked at me. Well, it surely explained why the bitch receptionist didn't want to let me see him. How dare he put a restriction on me to see him? Well, not just on _me_ (anyone who wasn't Rosalie or Esme). But still!

"I'm sorry, Bella. I know how hard this is on you." He grabbed my hand with his free one and cupped my pale one in his tanned one. Wherever he was, he sure did get a tan. I sat on one side of my brother, and Esme sat on the other. It was like we were cocooning him from the Navy and all of its trouble. If one of their Commanders or Uncle Sams entered the door for Edward, we would fight tooth and nail. Even though I knew the Uncle Sam poster man was all fake and such, it still represented how misguiding the military was. Had Ed seen himself like this- doped up and miserable, having fought the odd of dying on a foreign land, when he was in that scout's office ready to sign those dreadful papers… would he have thought twice and not signed? "You're the greatest sister I could have ever asked for." He smiled at me, causing my heart to shatter in another million, tinier pieces.

I wish I was as great as he really thought. If I was great, I could have stopped Rosalie from leaving. If I was great, I might have been able to quiet Sophia's tears at night. And if I were that great, I would be able to let go of Emmett- who had let go of me _weeks_ ago. No, I wasn't great. I was completely average, in every way. I shook my head. "You're the greatest brother I will _ever_ have." I refused to cry in front of Ed, the solid rock of my Universe. I knew I would have to finally meet another man to be my rock, and not depend on my thirty year old brother anymore. Would I ever truly find a man out there that loved me unconditionally like him? Was there someone who would put up with me through periods, through mood swings, through my emotional roller coaster of a life? I doubted it; those men just didn't exist.

"Where's Rose?" He suddenly looked around. Esme sent him a perplexed look.

"I'm not sure. Did she come with you, Bella?" They both looked at me, searching for an answer. I shook my head. "Maybe she's at home with Sophie." Esme offered, but there was another explanation on her mind- I knew it. _Mom_ just knew those things. Ed nodded, and pointedly asked where his dad was. Esme rushed off to find him; he was probably harassing any doctor he caught sight of- as a doctor himself, he felt the need to rip someone else's asshole out if he thought something less riskier could have been done in regards to procedures with his children. Like when I was sixteen, and had to get my tonsils removed. He fought with my anesthesiologist about how much my body needed, in a body to stimuli ratio they fought over for an hour. I knew I was blessed to have such a family.

Edward shifted his body, releasing our interlock and hoisted himself into a sitting position with his strong arm. He refused my help, opting to take care of himself. "Bella." He began, a determined look on his face.

"She left." I choked out, willing myself not to break. He needed to know what happened.

"Left. She left." He swallowed harshly, causing his Adam's apple to bob up and down visibly. "When?" Ed didn't even look at me, and I instantly felt horrible for telling him so soon. Would it have been better, had he waited to arrive back home?

I stood and faced him full on, my thumbs twiddling helplessly. "One week ago. I've been staying at your house, with Sophie." I willed his eyes to connect with mine, so that I could trigger some kind of emotion of his. "I tried to tell her… that it couldn't be over like that. But she was set on leaving, and I couldn't necessarily keep her there against her want. So, Rosalie walked out of the door. She didn't want me to tell you until you absolutely had to find out."

"When I walked through my house, waiting for my wife and daughter to greet me like some suburban bastard?" He chuckled harshly; gah, I hated that laugh! I hated that hateful, sarcastic wit of his he pulled when he had nothing else. "I should have known." He shook his head. "_Wonderful_ never lasts forever." And that was the exact moment his green eyes met mine. "Least of all, _love_."

I knew sympathy was in my eyes, I just couldn't help it. "You have Sophie to think about, Edward." I needed to put his life into perspective, before his emotions got the best of him. Rose was the love of his life, I knew that. But if she wanted a break, or to forever end it, he needed to think about another's emotional needs even before his own- his daughter's. "That piece of wonderful is _forever_." But his eyes were blank, as if he didn't remember a little girl with bronze locks named Sophia.

"I want to be alone right now, Isabella." I looked at him fiercely. Since when had he ever called me Isabella? Since when! "Don't, just go!" His tone grew stamina that his body couldn't have produced, he was too weak. I hid the hurt on my face, and sent him the closest thing to a sneer I could muster under all of the anguish and pressure.

"Perhaps if you weren't such a prick to the people who are still around you, you wouldn't feel so alone right now!" I angrily spat. How dare he kick me out? I was just the messenger! I was partially the victim, here. I walked down the hallway, fuming with the simmering emotions brewing within me. Dreams were supposed to come true, not come crashing down upon me. Where was the white picket fence now, when I needed it? I buried my face in my hands and sat down on a bench I found right outside of the emergency portion. God, this hurt. It hurt like hell!

It was only like yesterday that I was happily eating Sunday dinner with everyone at the Cullen's Mansion in sunny Los Angeles, still in high school and full of ambition. I remembered how happy, and in love with life I was. Nothing could take me back there, not even Edward's reaction having been civil enough. I wished for nothing more than to have everything the way it was- something lovely and pleasant. Something fresh and relieving. Sobs wracked my body, and I felt like _I_ was the one falling out of love. I mistook _myself_ for Edward, the person who was betrayed by his love. I suppose I was betrayed my own self, the silly girl who wanted a fairytale so much she chased it. I felt a arm hook itself around my shoulder and bring my body closer to theirs. It was probably dad, or one of Ed's many friends on base. I looked pathetic, crying my eyes out in a public place in the middle of the night. Sheets of rain occasionally hit me as the strong wind brought it under the safe cover of the hospital's rooftops. The bench had its own roof, but defiantly not sturdy.

I willed myself to push away the bitter taste off of my tongue and confront the man who cared enough to coo me. The sight that I came face-to-face was utterly shocking; he was just beautiful! A large gash on the side of his face, and it looked fresh, but his hazel almond shaped eyes and russet skin made my blood run hot. I blushed, instantly receiving dirty images in my head. God, he was a gorgeous man! What would a guy like him want with me? They knew who my brother was. If he was out to hit on me for a quick lay, he was talking to the wrong girl. And at that moment, I would bite his head off if he tried pulling a move. "Who are you?" I shot the question like a bullet from a gun, quick and steady.

He blinked twice, before moving a strand of my hair behind my ear. I moved back, my but making a sliding noise as I averted anymore of his touches. "I'm… my name is-"

"I know you!" I blurted, even though that statement wasn't entirely correct. I recognized that voice from somewhere. But I had never seen his face before, ever. "I mean, I know your voice." I dragged the end of my sleeve under my nose to catch the last of my tears on my cheekbones. He leaned in and held my chin in his hand. I had dreamed about those hands before!

"My name is Emmett." Holy shit in a bottle. This was… Emmett? Wounded, sensitive, caring, intelligent, witty Emmett Conner McCartney? No way. He was fucking with me, or this dude had the same first name as my… ex-pen pal.

"Emmett McCartney?" His dark eyes flashed as I finished his name, as if saying his name excited his soul. Whoa, this could not be happening! He lived in North Carolina, not in California! There was no way chance brought all of this upon me. Not all at once!

"And you are Bella Swan." He pointed out.

Well, that was obvious.

**A/N: Not too sad, was it? By the way, my inspiration was Adele's new song "Someone Like You". Check it out, it's the very best! If you have already heard it, I am sure you can spot the paragraphs where I intertwined some of her lyrics and meanings of verses in with my plot. **

**Thank you for reading, please review.**


	5. It Doesn't Matter

**A/N: Is SEAL Emmett not the sexiest creature you have ever read about? He rocks my socks, ladies :)**

**Review and tell me whose POV you would like to see next chapter!**

**Rosalie?**

**Alice?**

**Edward?**

**Esme?**

**Sophie?**

**Emmett POV-**

I ignored the itching feeling to take my hands off the steering wheel and run my hands through her boisterous hair; the locks cascaded down her shoulders and back so heavenly, that I knew I had never seen another girl who wore her hair so perfectly. Bella sighed and snuggled into the seats of the SUV Paul let me borrow. I hated being out of my element; without my own car and out of my state. Never mind the wounds, they would heal soon enough. As soon as I laid eyes on Bella, I knew I wanted to make haste in explaining everything to her. For one reason or another, she was alright with the leaving the hospital where she had just seen her brother. I didn't question it much, since she was a girl of few words in person. In her letters and emails, she always had something to say, even if it was just a ramble. But as Bella sat, her eyes glued to the passing scenery around us, I realized either she was too shy to say anything, or she was brooding. I didn't do well with brooding. "Right here." She gestured to a small café with flashing neon "Welcome" signs on it. We stayed on Base, of course. I knew she wouldn't like the drive away from her broken brother.

I parked the car and climbed out easily, neglecting the stinging in my left leg. IT felt like the opposite of Arthritis, but I had better things to worry about. A stupid pain would definitely come second to beautiful Bella. She would always come first. I went around to her side, but she was already out of her side and making a bee line to the door. I beat her to the entrance and held open the doors for her, which rewarded me with a small smile and a polite "thank you". We sat at a small booth, and even if this was all so insignificant to her, I would forever remember this. I had to go back to North Carolina soon, and I would not have the chance of being in the presence of this pretty girl again, for awhile. I ordered us two coffees when the plump waitress sat two menus in front of us. Ah, West Coast hospitality? A tiny giggle from across from me caught my attention and I looked up.

"What?" I rudely shot, wondering why she was laughing. Was it the scar? Maybe she was one of those girls who didn't have the guts to make fun of someone. Maybe she was one of the laughing idiots- which hurt just as much. I peered down at my laminated menu of dishes, my hand moving up to cover the red hot spot.

"I- I was just thinking how _ironic_ this is." Bella let her gaze travel to her lap, where her hands were folded neatly. Her sleeping attire made her assets clear for me, and I loved the advantage, though I would never let her know. I didn't want her to think I was a perverted shithead, or anything. I was a SEAL; I knew how to stare _without_ staring. Another chuckle, but this time it was strangled. "You're so… I don't know!" She seemed frustrated, as if she were the one windblown by the sheer beauty of her pen pal. I knew that wasn't the case, because with my ugly marks- well, I would never have that pretty boy face I had in high school. Bella let out an angry howl of displeasure, putting her lips in a pouting position. Oh, I wanted to touch those red lips. "You're so beautiful, and I'm so plain." She shrugged and stirred her coffee. "Why didn't you want to exchange pictures? I mean, was it for your benefit only?"

I looked at her oddly. "What do you mean? I wanted to see thousands of pictures of you." I gulped, not knowing how much I should tell her. So, she thought I was beautiful? I relished in thought of her knowing what I looked like when I was seventeen, long before the scars and cuts. I would probably have soaked her panties. But I shook my head; there was no reason for my thoughts to go south, yet. "I care more about what's going on in the inside." I laid my hands on the table, palm down. "I didn't care what you looked like; you were intelligent and witty and understood me. Putting a face to words wasn't necessary.'

"Not when you look like that!" She gestured to me, but blushed crimson at her own words. "I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable. I just- the way you described your scar! I thought you were going to be some beast. And your height…well, you're so towering." She smiled at me, dipping her small tongue into the steaming pool of brown liquid, and retracted quickly when she realized it was too hot. God, I loved everything about this woman. "You made yourself out to be a giant with a mask face and ghost on your back." Bella surmised, took a sip of her cup, and shook her head. "You aren't any of those things, Emmett."

I almost gasped at the euphoria that overtook my body when she said my name like that. It was… erotic. "It's something I live with." I pointed my face in her direction, and she stilted her head to get a better angle. When she wasn't satisfied, she got out of her seat and plopped down next to me, her thin jacket wrapped tight around her frame. Bella's glossy eyes and cold fingertips touched my face oh so gently, as to not break me. I grinned at that; she would learn that I was unbreakable, and not porcelain. _She_ was fine china, always ready to fall a part. "You don't have to be so gentle. I changed the wrappings before we left, and it's not contagious." I choked out the last part. What if she was touching it softly because she was sickened by it?

"I know, silly." She kept smiling, not letting my asshole attitude ruin the moment for her. Her fingers kept traveling up and down the old scar, and right around the edge of the new one. "That one is bran new. You got in an accident… with my brother." I didn't nod, nor shake my head. I was under strict orders not to let anyone know about my work. No one at all- and that was a rule that was given on my first day. "It's not so bad, and don't think it grosses me out. Edward once got a bloody gash from his lower lip to his chin, skin hanging everywhere. We were rollerblading- well, I wasn't rollerblading. I was walking Gino, my dad's little Spaniel- and Ed was going way too fast and he _ate_ _it_ in front of these girls that just moved in across the street- of which he had been trying hard to impress. But Edward likes to impress everyone he meets! Embarrassing, right?" She wrinkled her nose, at the memory of the girls and not the wound.

I laughed at that. No one's rambling had ever made me an ounce as comfortable as hers did. It reminded me that was kind people out there, and they were beautiful.

Her finger moved down my slightly crooked nose (broken twice) and ended up right below my bottom lip. "I've seen worse." She simply shrugged and sent me another breath-taking smile, which might have seemed nonchalant to her. But to me it was…liberating. It was freedom to know that someone had accepted me, for my face and my skittish attitude about the scars.

"Well, I've never seen anything more beautiful." I whispered and leaned into her hand, our foreheads almost touching at an angle. I was a lot taller than her, but only because she was so short. True, not a pixie midget. But she couldn't have been anything over five feet. I was 6'4.

Bella shook her head, but didn't move out of the situation I put her in. neither did she object that I was far past her personal space. "I'm not _all_ that." She seemed to have a preset description of herself, and none of what I said seemed to match it. I suddenly realized we were two of a kind, just different circumstances.

I leaned in closer, my lips hovering above hers. "_Yes_, you are." And I kissed her shocked lips, adoring the feeling of happiness as our lips met in a show of…_love_?

I was too focused on Bella to try and define what I felt yet.


	6. Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie

**ROSE POV-**

I stared at my cell phone, cradled in my hands above the swell of my stomach. I wanted to call- needed to call! I wanted to know if he was back yet, and if he missed me. I knew it wasn't right just leaving him alone like that, and especially my sweet, small Sophie. But if i didn't leave when I did, I would have never left. And he needed to know that I could survive and function properly without his help or him being there for me- which he never was anyway. The only hope was that he couldn't live without me- I wanted him to realize that he needed me.

"Either you are going to call, or that phone is gonna grow legs and walk away." My cousin, Loretta, playfully teased as she sewed the pattern of a flower onto a scarf. I smiled and looked out the floor-to-ceiling window at the busy city beneath me. My mother owned a floor at the Rihza Bellene, an uptown sort of apartment. That was what I missed about New York; I always had the finest things when in my hometown, and with Edward, I always felt the urge to get my own things and earn my own way. Life was handed to me on a silver platter here on the East Coast. I grew up here on the fourteenth floor, where I made friends and memories that would all fade away when I tailed my boyfriend to the other side of the United States.

San Diego was so different. In California, everything was so carefree and the mood was mostly casual. On the coast, at least. "I don't know if I want to call." I sighed in utter frustration.

So I decided to let the week pass. _Maybe in a few days I'll have the courage_.

**Bella POV-**

"Stop that! Sophie, you need to settle down!" I yanked her by her hand and ushered her to an easy chair. "Now sit and calm the heck down! What is up with you?" I eyed her angrily, not sure what got into my usually calm and demure niece. Just seconds ago, she was kicking and screaming at Emmett- shouting profanities I never knew she had heard before. "I would never treat your friends like that, so you can't treat mine that way." I tried for a leveled tone, but the way she upturned her small nose made me want to throttle her skinny little neck.

"He's a bad man, Aunt Bella! I don't like him, I don't like him, I don't like him!" She yelled and dove off the sofa, trying to run past me. I roughly grabbed her by her forearms before setting her sternly down on the seat again. "I want my daddy, I want my daddy!" Her face was turning red from anger. What did she have to be angry about? As soon she came prancing down the stairs and noticed a tall man with a big smile and a box of donuts in hand, she let out a belch of fits I couldn't believe.

Emmett was only in town for two more days, and he wanted to visit my niece. I made it clear that if he wanted us to work out, he would have to accept the whole package. I knew, deep down in my heart, that Rose wasn't coming back. Not for awhile, at least. And Edward was being kept at the military hospital for a few more days for observation and other "classified" things. So Sophia was definitely a part of the package. And what a prickly little bitch she had been! "I don't _ever_ want to hear you say any of those words again! I don't want you to ever raise your _goddamned_ tone at me or another one of my friends, young lady!"

"_You_ just cussed! And _you're_ yelling at me!" She pointed out, cocking her body up to meet mine. I was towering over her, and I knew that wasn't healthy when talking to a child, but I was just so damn angry! Here I was, doing the best I could in the worst situation! I just wanted to be happy, and Em made me happy. Sophie needed to see that.

I glared her little frame, which sent me the same look right back. "_Listen_ here, little girl. _I_. Am. The. Adult. Here. So. You. Had. _Better_. Respect. Me." My chest was heaving with the exhilarating feeling I had to tear up the whole room. I was frustrated, and angry, and mad at myself. It was too soon to bring someone around her. Sure, losing your mom for an unidentifiable amount of time was hard, and not something even the strongest of us could handle. But she had no right to be like that; if I let her get away with it this once, she would do it again. "Sophia, if you don't like my rules- _too_ bad! There isn't necessarily a long line of people _waiting_ to take care of you. You're my niece, and I love you." I sighed, sitting down beside. She still wore a pout, as if she were the one scorned in this circumstance. "But you have to cut this out."

Sophie's lower lip trembled. "I miss my mommy." She admitted lowly, scooting away from me as I leaned in to take her in my arms. "That man is going to _take_ _you_ away, just like he took my mom and my dad!" If it weren't for the shock of her words, I would have been proud of her speech. She didn't often say things in one whole statement. It usually took a few tries for the words to find each other in her head.

I shook my head. "I'm not going to leave you." I wasn't sure what else to tell her. Alice had already left with Jasper to her own house again, and in these situations she knew what to do. Did I ignore her body signals and just embrace her? Did I give her the space she thought she wanted? Should I have just walked away and let her deal with it by herself? Shit, I was so confused! Where was "Auntie Guide for Dummies" when I needed it? "Your mom and dad are coming back, Sophia. I promise; they're just at a bad place in their life right now." She didn't nod or start crying, only stared evilly at the ground. "That doesn't give you any excuse to act the way you did, though. I **won't** allow you to hate the world because of your mommy and daddy."

I doubted she understood a lot of what I said, but at the last part her eyes shot to me. She was so young, and so full of life. But what she said next made me cringe. "Stop, Aunt Bella. I know you hate life, too." Her upper lip curled, turning her face into an ugly sneer. Since when did six year olds _sneer_? I was so befuddled that I didn't even have the chance to deny or confirm what she said. Sure. I did have bad feelings for a lot of things. But they were never things that I came out with, and definitely not to my little niece. I wanted her to grow up and love everything around her. Edward was like that when he was younger, and so was Rose. They were positive people who went around and tried to spread the enthusiasm; they both pulled me from the rut I put myself into when I was a young teen. They gave me a dose of laughter and shot of happiness that I would take and use for the rest of my life.

So, I needed to do the same for their daughter. This was karma; this was paying back dues owed. And did I owe so much to Rosalie and Edward; when I was a little older than Sophie, I saw them as a king and queen- they were the cool kids that for some reason, loved me like crazy. I shook my head and pulled myself away from memory lane. "Bye, bye, Miss American pie…" I sang aloud and nudged her shoulder gently, a grin plastered on my face. it was a song my brother always sang when he was working on something, and we would all join in on the song. "Drove my Chevy to…" I nudged her again, causing a slow smile to peek on her lips. "The levee, but the levee was dry. The good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye, saying…"

"This will be the day that I die. Bye, bye, Miss American Pie!" She ended softly, and we both erupted in loud fits of giggles. Our sudden happiness erupted the house, causing the walls to ricochet our voices, and the halls absorbed our song in echoes. We were both two very awful singer, whilst Rose had an angelic voice, and Ed could always carry a little tune when he wanted us to smile.

Don McLean had made a little girl very happy in one of her worst bad moods.


	7. Pippa the Otter

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed on little Sophie's feelings! I ****want everyone to focus on Sophie/Emmett this chapter.**

**Tell me what you take from their interactions.****  
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>"Emmett is so funny, aunt Bella! Did you see that face he made? And the ice cream!" Sophie called excitedly. I smiled at her eagerness. As soon as he trampled off to find a restroom, my little niece jumped into a rant about how great he was. I was scared to bring her on this wharf date but i entrusted that after last night, she would give him some respect. Sophie was prickly at first, but as soon as Em bought her vanilla waffle cone and gave her funny smile to make her laugh, she was his.<p>

"Calm down, girl. I'm glad you like him." I pinched her chubby cheek softly and winked at her.

"Can I call him Uncle Emmett?" That question gave me whiplash! Where was this coming from? Just last night she made a proclamation to hate him for eternity! Now here she wanted to call him uncle!

"Baby, I don't know. I'm not sure if he's that comfortable yet. Give him time, okay?" Emmett admitted to me that he had one brother and one sister, they were never close. Emily was ten years older than him, and long before enlisted in the Navy as a navigation specialist on base. Elizar was a few years younger than him, and also enlisted in the Marines. It seemed his family thrived and prospered in the military. Em had no nieces or nephews, and a few cousins. He was mostly with his Rottie, Zeus, and occasionally checked on his father.

I wasn't sure that he was ready for an eccentric little girl calling him "uncle" all the time. Em came back a few minutes later, settling in his chair easily. "Anything thing you want, Sophie. As much as you can eat." He goaded her, and I knew she would take it as an incentive to stuff her face until she puked.

"Hush, Em!" I said testily and turned to my niece, whom held up the small child's menu innocently. "You will order a small meal, because that's all you need to eat it before you make yourself sick-"

"Don't listen to your aunt, baby girl. I'm paying, eat all you want. You want dessert instead of dinner? Go ahead!" I rolled my eyes. He was such a beautiful idiot sometimes.

"Can I call you uncle?" The question flew from her lips before i could stop her. Would Emmett think I was trying to push this on him? Would he hate me for letting her put him in a tight spot? "Aunt Bella said to give you time, but you would be the best uncle i ever had!" Well, he would be the only uncle she ever had. Rosalie had a half sister in Staten Island, but they never talked. And Edward only had me.

Instead of Emmett flipping, he laughed a jubilant sound. "I would love for you to call me Uncle Emmett, Sophie." I sent him a pleading look to forgive me on behalf of my- well, _our_ niece now. So all of the bad shit she did would not have to be handled just by me? That was a plus. Em only shook his head and wrapped an arm around my waist, bringing us closer on the booth we shared. Sophie sat across from us, grinning like a happy little tot. He turned my chin to kiss my eagerly on the lips, causing Sophie to "_boo_" us and make smart remarks about how old we were. I giggled against his lips and finally pulled away; when I looked up into his eyes, his scars disappeared and his face looked ten years younger. At the moment, he was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. And when the moment disappeared, I realized that I just let my only niece attach herself to a man that would be leaving, very soon.

"Uncle Emmett! Did you see that? Did you see that?" She pulled on his sleeve, dragging him to the railing of the wharf and peered intensely at the water. A second later, the center of her attention popped out of the waves of the blue ocean. Sophie nearly screamed in excitement as she talked a mile a minute about all of the facts she knew when it came to sea otters. I gave her bravo for her good eyesight, even in the dawn light. My brother had an immense love for sea animals and ice cream, and so it was only right that Sophie shared his enthusiasms. "Aunt Bella, can we name him? I want to come here everyday to see him!" The bright glow she emitted overtook me and I nodded foolishly. I loved the wharf, but fighting through traffic _everyday_? And coming to spot a Sea Otter, of which Sophie thought she had already memorized? I hoped she would decide against the **everyday** thing once we got home.

"What would you like to name him, Sophia?" I tilted my head in her direction, prompting her to speak.

She looked concentrated for a good minute before widening her eyes in thought. "Pippa!"

I chuckled. "I thought you said this Otter was a boy?"

Sophie rolled her eyes and spoke slowly, as if she were the adult talking to a child. "Pippa is a boy and girl name, Aunt Bella!" She sent me a "duh" look and turned to Emmett. "Uncle Em, can you pick me up so I can see over the this." And she pointed to the wooden railing. He nodded without thinking and lifted her under her arms, holding her tiny five year old body to him. I gasped, an awful feeling of panic going over me. I prompted him to put her down, but he only shook his head.

"Trust in me, Bella. I've held a _lot_ heavier over _no_ railing." He chuckled lightly, putting me at some ease. I trusted him, yes. I also trusted in myself immensely- but not even I would hold a child to me so close to an open place by the sea. It was cold and dark, and full of so many dirty creatures! I snapped myself out of my rant and looked out to the dipping horizon, willing myself to just relax and realize that Em was a wonderful guy to me, and my niece.

Sophie sugar-induced bout of energy died very quickly after the Otter swam back into the deep blue. She laid her head on his shoulder, and we hadn't even noticed her eyes drooped closed. I imagined that her dead weight would be strenuous on his still-healing body, but he refused to put her down. If he kept treating her like a princess, she was going to think she could like one around me! But I loved that they connected so well, so I couldn't complain too much. "Em, it's okay to wake her up-"

"Stop, Bella." Emmett hushed me with a certain tone of us, causing my eyes to almost fall out of my head That was the first time he had ever really took another tone with me, and it was such a turn-on. I loved the fact that he didn't let me make all the decisions for him! "She feels like a sack of potatoes." He shrugged.

"I have trouble carrying a sack of potatoes." I admitted ruefully, eyeing him roughly. He began laughing, as if that were the funniest thing he ever heard.

"That is because you are female." He pointed out; I blushed crimson. Oh, hell no! Not this.

"_Excuse_ me?" I punched his arm as hard as I could, a small smile forming on my lips. He hadn't even tensed a muscle- and oh, those muscles were just meant for tensing. I ran my fingers over the fine muscles a few nights before, but it wasn't enough. I wanted to stare at them, memorizing every single inch of their characteristics. "Because I'm _female_?"

Em smiled brighter as he easily shifted Sophie in his arms. We were walking towards his SUV, a long walk in my shoes. I just imagined what it would be like to carry a sixty pound girl with me as I strolled. "I didn't mean it in a bad way. Women are structurally built to bare children correctly, causing their posture and limb strength to be unequal to a man." I glared him down, willing him to turn back into the vagina-whipped dude I met at the hospital. But I suppose this Emmett was a lot more fun.

At least this side of him would take any kind of crude joke I had! "We were built for a lot of _other_ things, too." I took the promiscuous route, because his definition of structure differences was correct. I wouldn't fight with logic, and he knew that. "Our hips give us that advantage, not our _limbs_." I winked at him as he carefully sat Sophie in her booster seat in the back. I heard a low growl emit from his throat as I turned around, making my way to the passenger side to strap myself in. before I could get to the door, he spun me around and pinned me against the car.

"Have I ever told you how much I appreciate the female gender, and just how greatly I adore their _advantages_?" He whispered huskily, creating goose pimples down my arms and legs. I was overtaken when his pressed his mouth to mine.

But like all good things, we were interrupted. A loud wail resounded from the car, in the voice of Sophie. Emmett drew away from me with a crestfallen look. I shrugged. "_**Your**_ niece." I teased and pushed him away to deal with her. He was happy to oblige and opened the backdoor, whispering sweet things to quiet her down. _Jesus_, she was only in the car for a minute alone! And she had been asleep! If it were just she and I, Sophie would have never made that kind of a scene. And since when did she whine like that?

But Emmett brought out the worst in her, and the very best in me.


	8. Never Asked For This

**A/N:**

**First Twenty reviewers will be sent the first page of my next chapter! So type, type, type away! **

No one could help the tension in the room as I sat primly next to my brother, his pristine white sheets surrounding him like a bad dream. "Has she called?" His voice was raspy from numerous days in this hospital swarming with sickness, and the different oral and esophagus examinations. I crossed, uncrossed, and re-crossed my legs, never quite looking at him. "No." Edward answered for me, not caring that I couldn't meet his eyes. "I don't know why the fuck I even think about it anymore. She's gone, and obviously not coming back." He cleared his throat roughly.

"That's not true, Edward. Maybe if you called her, you could change her mind!" I then met his green eyes, which were blazing with an anger I knew nothing about.

"Rosalie made her decision. She's the bitch that left me!" He spouted angrily, probably regretting saying it the moment he did.

"That's _still_ the mother of your daughter, and unborn child." I pointed out.

Edward ignored me steadily. "She is carrying another girl. I will prove her unfit, and take my child." He was ranting listlessly, and there was no stopping. "It will be easy, since she did abandon Sophie in your care."

I rolled my eyes. "Cool off, Ed. She didn't abandon Sophia; she knew I would take care of her while you were gone."

"She abandoned my daughter the same way mom abandoned us. Sure, she didn't kick us off to the side of the road- but Rene always made it plain and clear that she didn't need nor want us. That _is_ abandonment, Isabella." He shut his eyes and took a deep breath. If only someone soothing like Jasper was here to calm him down. I found that I never really calmed Ed, just mostly riled him up more. But I really couldn't help it! I would never tell him a lie just because it would appease him. That was a bad habit for a Navy SEAL man to acquire, being given what he wanted when he wanted it.

"It's not like you were ever any help." I shot back at him. "You were always gone, one mission or another! Edward Masen Cullen, that is abandonment- because you didn't leave us with anyone. You left Rose, Sophia, and I alone by our selves! At least these past few weeks Sophie had me!" I stood up and shot for the door, but as soon as my hand grasped the brass knob, I turned sharply on my heel. "And thank you for introducing me to Emmett, by the way. He's a great man." I said evenly, wanting to show the lighter side of my mood before I left him.

Esme spent most of the day with him at the hospital, and he was due back home on Tuesday, in just a few days. I shut the door silently behind me, and pressed my back to it as soon as I stepped out into the hall. Why was Edward so difficult? I wasn't willing to defend Rosalie for anything she did, but I would logically justify her rash decisions. She was the wonderful woman whom helped me at one time and bore my beautiful niece. I made it back to my brother's house in record time, throwing open the door, but not hearing scuttling girlish steps, or Emmett's quiet strides across the tiled floor. "Hello? Auntie Bella is here!" I called loudly in the parlor. Suspiciously, I tossed my light coat on the wooden stand by the door and ventured through the Sitting room and into the kitchen. I climbed the stairs quietly, went through all the bedrooms and computer room. "Where are they?" I asked aloud, but then caught sight of Sophie's toy room's door slightly ajar. Were they trying to play hide-and-seek, or something? I rolled my eyes and crept into the room silently, and the sight I saw drew moisture to my eyes.

Sophie had an oversized teddy bear couch that Edward sat in and ready stories on, but once Sophie got old enough to walk and talk, he assumed he was cleared of his duties to the plush seat that never fit him. Now, imagine a man with a much larger build and a lot more inches taller laying it with a tiny girl balled up on top of him. "Oh." I sighed quietly, loving the scene in front of me. Emmett seemed to love my niece as much as she loved him; how was it that so many people fell in love with Em so easily? It was either his addictive personality, or it was the lovely feeling of being utterly protected when around him. I pulled out my phone and snapped a cute picture or two with my high-tech device Alice had insisted I buy a few months before. I saved the picture and promised myself to update it to my online profile.

"Done yet?" Emmett rumbled slowly, one eye peeked open. I nodded with a big smile, happily skipping to his side and kneeling down. He moved slightly to position himself in a better spot to sit up, but a low utter of a groan from Sophie's lips made his body lay still again/ I giggled behind my hand, blowing him a quiet kiss after. I thought nothing more of Edward's rage as I traced a finger along his mysterious scar. The first few times I did it, he would flinch or lash out at me for "treating it like a freak show". Now, he was a lot calmer and more lay back about it. "How was Eddie?"

I shrugged, not meeting his eyes anymore. "Stubborn, angry. What else?"

Emmett's hand found its way around Sophie and held my own. "You've got to give him his own space. He probably feels fucked over- you know that's not a feeling you just bounce back from." I nodded and looked back up at him. "Just remember that he does appreciate you; just try to be patient.' I nodded again. All of that was true, and it was everything I already knew.

I thought about saying something I had wanted to say for a long time, I just never had someone I could trust with it. I sighed and plopped on my ass, the castle-printed carpet breathe me cushioning everything nicely. "I never asked to be put in this position." I admitted lowly, ashamed for even thinking it. I should be grateful for having a healthy, responsive niece and an _alive_ brother to nag at me, I knew that! "I never wanted to be here, in my brother's home playing _house_ with a little girl and a man whom was thrust into a precarious situation by a woman he didn't really know that well yet! I never wanted you to meet me, like _this_." I gestured around me. "I always thought we'd meet when the time was _right_, and without so much of my baggage."

I expected Em to nod and agree with me. He only chuckled heartily, keeping a silent humor to him. "Shut up, Bella." He shook his head. "I love this precarious situation of yours. And who's to say what the "right time" is? _This_," he mocked me with a gesture to the khaki bear he was sitting on, "is where I want to be, Bella, because I'm here with you."

I stared into his deep eyes, trying to gauge this man. If he was telling the truth… if he was the exception to self-centered, selfish men out there… well, I would juts die of happiness. "Thank you, Emmett." I smiled, a real smile at that! "You're truly the greatest thing that has ever happened to me." I quoted the pick-up line he used on me on one of the first days we started talking to one another.

He grinned, catching onto my train of thought. "I do believe we're going to be getting to know each other a lot better these next few days." Emmett sent me a sexy wink; that sultry smile of his having grown on me a little too well.

And then the crestfallen look came back to me. "Silly, you're leaving tonight." He promised he got the latest flight he could back to Fort Sumner.

He shrugged. "There isn't anything in North Carolina that needs my immediate attention. I can do any little paperwork here in Coronado." He said smoothly, bring more perspiration to my eyes. "My cousin Ike has promised to look out for my dad for a few weeks while he's down in Sumner."

I leaned forward, grabbing his face in my hands. "You've just bought us a whole 'nother month." And for now, I would be grateful for that.

**A/N: Oh, god! If only we **_**all**_** had a ****sexy**** Emmett like lucky girl Bella! More of angry Edward on the way, so beware.**

**Hey, it's ****never**** easy breaking up. Especially when you weren't **_**present**_** during the break-up!**

_**REVIEW**_.


	9. Stay Here Tonight

**A/N: Quick update, I know! Long update, I know! Great chapter, I know!**

**Your reviews kick ass, guys! I love the emotion and character analysis everyone has! **

**I especially liked "ROSABITCH" that was soooo catchy. **

**By the way, who has had a moment like this with a little kid? Tell me about it in a review!**

I shoved a piece of toast in my mouth, eyeing Sophie's concentrated face as she slurped her cereal. It was her way of eating that irritated Edward and Rosalie to no end, but I often found myself making such a noise. Why reprimand a little girl for a habit a big girl had? I saw no harm. "What's on your mind, Sophia?" I inquired casually, not wanting to let her know I was more curious than I should have been. Emmett left late at night, after a million games of Candy Land and a very ghetto, modified version of Monopoly (wherein Sophie gave her self money from the bank every other turn, and declared that she could buy property for cheaper prices than us). Sophie cried when he left, and I had to give her a quick scolding for acting out when he had to leave. It wasn't like he could just stay in brother's house!

"What's on yours?" she shot back, reminding myself that she may have looked like me, but she had my brother's attitude, most definitely.

I raised a freshly manicured eyebrow at her, dipping another piece of bread in my egg yolk. "I asked first." That perhaps wasn't the best response an aunt could giver her niece, but it would do.

"I asked second." Sophia challenged my look with one of her own. I would have smiled at her sassiness, but I decided to keep a straight face.

I leaned across the table halfway, plopping the food in my mouth tauntingly. "I'm older."

Sophie wrinkled her nose, either because she disliked the statement, or because she really did hate eggs as much as she said she did. "I'm prettier!" And her little tongue peeked out of her mouth, making her look as ugly as she sounded.

"You look ugly when you do _that_." I said blandly, not letting her feel too victorious. Just like Rosa, Sophie had a quick mouth with a silver tongue to tie it altogether. I would never remind her of that, though. I knew I hated it when distant relatives reminded me "how much you look like your mom", or "she acts just like Charlie!" I knew it; they _were_ my parents for goodness sake! "Come on, girl. Spit it out." I patted the table in a gesture and slouched in my chair once more.

She sighed dramatically. "Uncle Emmie should stay with us!" my eyes must have popped out of their sockets because she started a mad stuttering fit. "I mean, Auntie Bella, he shouldn't have to go somewhere else if he has friends! Daddy says that friends are family, and family isn't treated like strangers!" I couldn't fight with logic, or something my brother said. If he said it, it was gold. "Uncle Emmie is family, Auntie Belly!"

I angled my face, trying to get a better look in her eyes. "I know that, Sophie. But I don't think your daddy would like a stranger in his house. Your Uncle Emmett is not family to him, Sophia Cullen." I sent her a demanding look, but she ignored it.

"Than let's go see my daddy! I know he's sick right now, but I just know he'll say yes! When he meets Uncle Emmie, he will love him! Just like me and you love him." Sophie blurted all at once. A tingly feeling started at my fingertips, and traveled down my arm to the rest of my body. Love? It was so darn easy to love someone when you were that young; because when they did wrong, you could forgive them. When they called you a name, they said sorry and you could accept that apology. When they said they loved you back, you believed them. It all seemed to change you got older. It was harder to forgive, to forget, and to believe someone when they said they cared.

"I don't think it's the right time yet. Maybe in a few days?" I tried to compromise, not yet wanting to tell Ed that I had met and introduced Emmett to his daughter. I would not ask to let him stay in his own house. That was just… too weird for me. "Why the long face? Uncle Emmie is gonna be here in a few minutes. And I said in a few days." I attempted to cheer up a stubborn little girl.

Sophie looked up at me and pushed away her empty bowl. "Aunt Bella, "_maybe_" always means "_no_"." That made me smile, as I always thought the same exact thing.

I shook my head, falling more in love with the little pixie. "No, _maybe_ means _maybe_. If the answer was no, I would say no." I laid the law out, nice and clear for her to see. "Now go wash your hands and face. Your uncle is coming right now."

Two Days Later-

Emmett literarily spent every minute of daylight and darkness with us. He never pushed me to send Sophie away, like a regular guy would. Who wanted to sit there and play lame board games with a chick and her niece you just met, daily? Sure, we mixed it up and sometimes went to play at the park or go to see an animated movie. But I mean, Emmett was a sporty guy that liked adventure. How was that for a change? And I wanted him to be in the utmost comfort while in California, since he was staying on the other side of the country just for _me_. Sophie hadn't brought up him staying again, just happy that he really hadn't left us yet. When the month was over, that was another story.

But I knew I would never ask my brother something like that. So I decided to bring up something a little different for her, because I wanted to be with all day, every day, too! "Is she asleep?" I whispered, peeking over his shoulder to see her asleep against him as he flipped through a few channels. He nodded and tipped his head up, catching my lips in a quick kiss. He and I both agreed that sex could wait, until at least my brother was out of the hospital. I wanted to focus on Sophia, and what would be more awkward than having sex in your older brother's house? Plus that fact that I _never_ had sex before. I settled on the other side of him, snuggling to him close. Winter was coming, very soon. I would sure miss his massive warmth. "Em, if you ever feel like you need a break, I understand." I felt awkward as he looked down at me, not saying a word. "I mean, I know you wanted to check out that rock climbing spot they have off Ave Cliff, and California is the perfect city for an unattached man." I looked up at him, praying he would say something and not just stare at me like that.

Em sent me an odd look. "Unattached? My niece has me on a strict tea party schedule from 12-2, and then a hot date at the park with my girl for the rest of the afternoon. Not to mention the gourmet meals I'm cooked every night! _Attachments_ are an understatement." He chuckled, kissing my forehead lightly. "I've rock climbed greater heights, in more tropical settings for a _living_. I can go sporty out of my ass when I go back to Carolina. Right now, I like being a boyfriend and an uncle. I'm not any of that back in Sumner; I'm just a dull jock with no _attachments_ at all."

I wanted to believe him, so bad. But the thought that someone loved and cared for me under any circumstance, and for no reason at all, was hard for me to take. "I'm _just_ saying…"

"I _know_ what you're saying." He grabbed my chin in his hand and made our gazes meet. "Stop thinking like that. You're trying to make this uncomfortable, but I'm _not_ going for it." He smirked, and I was sure it was the most beautiful thing next to watching my first niece come in this world, that I had ever seen. "And I don't think Sopy would let me if I tried." I rolled my eyes, but knew it was true. She adored him for his nickname "_Sopy_". If I had given her such a nickname (one that refereed to something you cleaned yourself with!) she would have thrown a fit. But since Emmett gave it to her, she felt as if she had been knighted by the Queen of England!

But I loved this little relationship we had. "Sophie said she doesn't want you to stay at the hotel anymore, and she's become more and more persistent." I shook my head. "I keep telling her this is mucked up situation, but she's just not having it."

Emmett shrugged. "Then I'll rent a place out while I'm here." And he said it like he had money to just throw around like that. "Maybe she's just uncomfortable with me being so far, or in a weird place?" He seemed to think about it. "I did see a place down the road. I can keep it to use when I come down to Cali." We never talked about money situations, although we already knew each other's occupations. SEALs got paid good money. But not that _good_ of money, I was sure.

I held his hand and sat our intertwined palms on my lap. "I was thinking more a long the lines of you staying. I mean not here, the guest room is filled with Ed's gym stuff." I shrugged. "I was thinking of packing up some of Sophie's stuff and having her stay with me at my place. You're more than welcomed to stay with us…if it's alright with your situation?" Edward wasn't going with me after he was discharged tomorrow, I knew it. He was going to go with his mom, whom he felt like wouldn't judge him for his rash decisions and current situation. Ed always felt like I had a speculative eye him, because I was his only sibling.

Emmett nodded. "It would be way more convenient, and I would love to spend even more time with you than I do now. And maybe your walls aren't so thin?" He bounced his brown eyebrows around suggestively, earning a healthy slap across his shoulder from me.

That was Emmett. Always thinking about funny business.


	10. If It Makes You Happy

I sat outside in my silver Prius, tapping the steering wheel to an old Sheryl Crowe tune on the radio which was playing softly. As soon as my niece would hop in my car, her Kidz Hop CD would be blasting all the way home. I hated living almost twenty minutes away from her school, and not closer like Ed's house was. Speaking of the devil…he would be discharged that afternoon. I hadn't known how to tell Sophie that she would be seeing her dad today, for the first time in almost two months. Em was fine with me being out all day, as I had to grocery shop, sign her up for her Ballet lessons, and drop by NSA's office to get my ass chewed out about Rosalie leaving so unexpectedly. Why did I keep getting blamed for that woman up and leaving? Mrs. Tonya assumed that since she was my sister-in-law, I knew about such a change long before anyone else.

She sat me down in her office (Rosalie appointed her a small one next to her own) and spoke at me about everything that was going wrong. I had a bachelor in Literature and a bachelor in Family Communications; I was perfectly qualified for my VP position, but since Rosalie left no indication that NSA needed my guidance; Mrs. Tonya assumed she would be running things. I would let her, since I had way too much going on with my brother and my own love life to care to argue with her. So I left with a big fat "_Counselor"_ beside my name. At least the bitch didn't bother with my office, which she knew was way bigger than her own. Powers Elementary's bell rang and out poured hundreds of little kids, some as tall as me and some as short as my own little grandmother. I peeked over everyone's head until I saw my little sprout of bronze, pushing her sassy-ass way through everyone else. She wore a bright pink romper that morning, stating that the weather would be a little foggy, so just incase I lost her, I would be able to see her clothes. I rolled my eyes at such a prospect; she knew Autumn San Diego too well for being only six. Sophie waved at me from behind the passenger seat window crazily, drawing a smile from my dry lips. She opened the passenger door and climbed in, tossing her purple backpack (which had the latest teen idol pop star's face blasted across it) in the backseat, like she owned the car.

"I had such a _long_ day!" Sophia started, and I laughed at the prospect of coloring in shapes and walking on a white line all the way to a cafeteria a _long day_. "Joey kept poking me, and Isaac was pulling my hair all day. Some people are so _dumb_!" She rolled her eyes dramatically.

I pulled into traffic after checking her seatbelt, a good half an hour drive to Greco's Naval Specialist Hospital ahead of me. "I know what you mean, baby." I sighed, leaning back in my seat as we were stuck in a red light gridlock. In SD, every big street had a gridlock in two-minute intervals, just because this city was too damn small for so many people. Not to mention the tourists! That's why I partially loved the base; no heavy traffic, no problems. But I just couldn't live on base…everyone was the same. We moved slowly off Larval St and I hopped on the highway, paying close attention to the cars around me; I was such an extra cautious driver when Sophia was in the car with me!

"Where are we going? This isn't how we get home." I noticed she was referring to my house as "home" now. How could she mistake a little one-story, two bedroom duplex for a large, and beautiful two story home? I shook my head; I just didn't see it.

"Because we're not going home, Sophie. We're going to go see your dad." I sighed, ready for the onslaught of questions.

"Is he coming to our house?" She eyed me suspiciously.

"No, girlie, your dad is going to stay with Grandma." I didn't mention that he didn't want her going with him. The doctors spoke against it also, saying that if I was capable of taking care of her during his healing time, I should. It was actually a hassle to get Edward to agree to see Sophie; he was convinced that he was a lunatic of a monster, and his pretty little girl shouldn't see that. A broken arm and some pulled muscles in his leg (and maybe a facial scar or two) didn't make him a monster, and definitely not a lunatic. But sometimes he was a little too stubborn for his own good.

Her CD was playing already, her eyes downcast to the dashboard. "Are you taking me to Grandma's? Are you making me stay with her? Are you gonna leave me and daddy all alone with Grandma and Grandpa-" She was on a madwoman rant.

"No, no! Sophia, cool it! Your dad is going with your grandparents, and you're staying with me." I spared a small, reassuring glance that she gladly accepted with a sufficing nod.

"And Uncle Emmett?" She goaded, not letting anything slip her knowledge.

I rolled my eyes; that man wasn't going anywhere. "Yes, and Uncle Emmett. Although, if he snores like that again, he's getting kicked out." I teased, but was only half kidding. He was a big man, and decided that he would take Sophie to the gym with him the day before. He worked out and chased her around, tiring himself out completely. He fell asleep like a slob on my bedroom floor, where Sophie snuggled up to him and slept also. I tried to get her onto the bed with me, but she would rather wake with a sore back and a stiff neck than separate herself from Em. I wasn't about to join in on the party; I enjoyed my big bed.

Sophie smacked her teeth at me. "Whatever, Auntie Bella, he's the _man_. And Uncle Em told me that what the _man_ says **goes**. He says that me and him make the rules, not the _woman_." I laughed at the sheer stupidity, but decided that Em needed a good whipping for putting those kinds of thoughts in her head.

"And I'm the _woman_?" What would happen if she went to school and told all of her teachers that stupid shit Em was playing with her about? They'd think we had some serious caveman/Mormon stuff going on!

She nodded righteously. "Yup, Auntie Bella. The _man_ wears the pants!" She teased, Em having put thoughts of "tell your aunt that she's just a woman to get her mad", because Emmett knew how much of an activist I was.

"Is that right? Have the _man_ cook you dinner from now on." Her face turned sour at that; Em decided to try and cook one night, which all ended in chaos. He burnt the meatloaf (or whatever it was supposed to be) and didn't cook the egg in the stir fry long enough. He set the table up for us, and as soon as we sat down, he happily chomped down his large plate. We sat there, out of place and mostly disgusted. I suppose the Navy taught him that recipe; either way, I ended up having to throw away our plates and went to get McDonald's.

"I'm _just_ kidding, Auntie Bella!" she changed up the story, and with a few more of our laughs, we made it to the parking lot of Greco Hospital. I helped her out of the car and locked up my baby before holding her hand and made our way into the hospital. The secretary was an old woman whom directed us sweetly; gone was that one horrid woman the first night Ed was here! "Do you think my daddy is going to be happy to see me?" She was dancing on the balls of her feet as I led her to his recovery room, which he would be in for very long. I checked my phone as we climbed up the floors on our elevator.

"Of course he'll be happy, Sophie." I said without much thought; would he be? I wasn't so sure. But this wasn't for him; this was for Sophie, to know her dad was still alive and I wasn't lying.

_**From: Em (514) 675-000**_

_**Do you girls want me to cook tonight? I can whip up my goulash special?**_

I blanched at his definition of "goulash" and replied with a quick, "no, thanks, babe". I promised to pick up his favorite Teriyaki chicken, and he agreed with no hassle. Emmett could always be won over with food; that was his heart. Right before we walked through the door, Sophie's grip on my hand tightened, and I felt my heart sink to the bottom of my stomach. _Now or never, Bella._

**A/N: Oh, I would NOT complain if Em made me some shitty plate. I would happily eat it… but anyway! So, what's going to happen with Sophie and Edward? **

**Quick updates! If I get enough review love, the chapter WILL BE UPDATED tomorrow! If not, then expect it in a few days : ) my Muse needs to be provoked, ladies and gents. **


	11. Cry For Me, Cry For Me

**A/N: NEW ARTISTS OF THE WEEK! **

**Lauryn Hill! –favorite song: **_**Ex**_**-**_**factor**_**! &**

**Christina Perri- favorite song: **_**Arms**_**!**

**The lyrics I used in one of the last paragraphs is from the album called "**_**Lovestrong**_**" by Christina Perri. The song is called "**_**Arms**_**," I would suggest you listen to the song.**

**Lyrics at end of story by Lauryn Hill, "Ex-factor". Beautiful song.**

_One More Sunny Day-_

Alice smiled at me over her cup of coffee, allowing her nose to live in the crushed beans aroma. "It's a beautiful day." She looked at the sky, since we had a window seat in the little, convenient café across the street from her house. "Jasper has been accepted into Coronado's full-time Instructor position. He'll be teaching Navigation, and things of that caliber." She shrugged softly, her smile widening. "Of course, his ribs still need to heal. But his pension and my check will take care of us until then." Alice was a landscaping designer off base, and made an honest living out of it. Not enough to pay for their big white house and two Mercedes, though.

"Ali, if you ever need anything, I can promise to help." I laid a consoling hand over hers. I knew pension didn't pay so much. I had dealt with this sort of situation more than once with my foundation.

Her smile seemed to break as she shook her head. "I'm going to NSA and asking for some sort of bail out." Just a few weeks ago, she and Jasper were arguing over credit card bills and the increasing interest rate. I knew the money wouldn't come fast enough to allow every end to meet.

"No, Alice!" I sighed, pushing my coffee away. "I mean, _I_ will loan you the money. You won't have to go through NSA." A proud woman like Ali would never allow herself to seek out aide or any sort of money that she felt she could make on her own. There was no telling what else Jasper went through, and men didn't always bounce back as quick as Emmett. "Between your cars, the house, and insurance you can't possibly think it will all get paid on its own."

"Don't worry, Bella. I have an inheritance I haven't even touched. If times get hard, I'll use it. You've got a little girl on your hands; you can use all the money you have on her." Alice reassured me, sipping her cup with a healthy gulp.

"Emmett refuses to let me pay for anything. He's even gone to extremes of paying my rent." I shook my head. "And I don't know what for. We haven't even had sex." I chuckled.

Ali spluttered her drink a little, blushing a deep scarlet. "You're talking like a SEAL now!" She smirked, knowing just who my influence was. "Perhaps he cares for you? You, it's not a completely alien thing for someone to really _love_ you. Love does exist, no matter what the examples you've seen." Alice was right, I supposed. But I had never seen love, and so if I was in it, I would never know. "I can't wait to meet this Emmett. Any guy who pays your _bills_ is a guy to keep in my book."

I smiled, looking down at my coffee once more. "No, in your book, if he buys you a _Mercedes_, he's a guy to keep." I peered out of the window at her bran new, shiny car. Jasper would give her anything she wanted in this whole world. She laughed outright at that, not denying one minute of it.

**Dinner**-

Emmett dropped Sophia off with the Gertrude's, as they had profusely called me to drop her off for their youngest daughter's slumber party. I knew Mrs. Gertrude was only worried about me and Edward, but I was glad that she was trying to help. One night without Sophie and her mile-a-minute dialogue would be healthy for me. And she did need to go out in the world with people of her own age, not just her old woman of an aunt. "Are you alright?" Em asked me from across the compact sitting area, the television turn on low, which was weird. Em liked his TV loud and right there with him.

I nodded, trying to push away the tears that were threatening to fall everywhere. "Yeah, I'm fine." I shrugged, not knowing what I was supposed to say to him. I was perfectly fine sitting there, watching him get all into the game- commentating snide remarks about the opposing team. "Just thinking about everything." I replied truthfully, even if he already knew everything on my mind. I could feel his eyes on me, piercing right through the walls I put up for insurance purposes. "Imagining how this is all going to play out." I shrugged, not meeting his hazel eyes. "What if my brother isn't going to be my brother, after all? I've seen these guys go in great and come out a monster. My brother isn't inhuman, he isn't any super exception! He's just a normal guy, whom is just as susceptible to psychological damage as any other." I admitted lowly, staring down at the Glamour magazine I picked up an hour ago at the café; I really wasn't one for fashion mags, but it was the last one on the shelf and I favored a quick read.

"Sometimes it's hard to realize that a person is only human, when before you could have sworn they were superheroes." I looked up at him, smiling my first lift of lips that day. "That's the thing about heroes, Bella. They _do_ exist, but they're only human." He shut off the TV with a click of the remote and sauntered over to me; when he sat next to me, his body mass made an indentation in the cushions. He pulled me to him, covering my body with his arms. "I'm going to take care of you, Bellsie. I promise." He tilted my chin so that I looked directly up at him, being sprawled along on my back against his taut body.

Bellsie? I thought I'd never see the day. "_You_ _put your arms around me, And I'm whole_." I whispered, fearing that I quoted a favorite song of mine too loud, it break the moment I had waited my whole life to be in. How long had I secretly wanted a man to hold me, and tell me _he_ would take care of everything? I had waited to be a Rosalie for far too long- I felt like I had waited forever.

"That's what I like to hear." He smirked, taking my lips in a chaste kiss. "It's what I'm here for, to take care of you."

I smiled, rubbing his palm with my smaller fingers. Edward set up our correspondence, not intending on anything going further than a few kind words and helpful motivation. He meant for me to help his friend, of who could not help himself. "Edward set us up on Email to make sure you were alright and to have a little guardian to give you motivation to…live." I shrugged. It was what I summed up so far, but Edward was always full of surprises, a drawback indefinitely. "He wanted to give you someone who wouldn't judge or hurt you, someone to take care of your emotional needs- because he thought you needed it." I shook my head, suddenly realizing something. "But I was the one who needed all of that. I needed another person who was more than half-witted, with a morsel of humanity. I needed you." What Rosalie said about fate, and the cards of my fate that would come? [**chapter 1]** It had to be true, and it was something I could now understand and hopefully come to appreciate.

"You're a strong woman whom is never going to _need_ another person. But I will be more than happy to be with you, for as long as you want me." My eyes were glossy at his beautiful words. God, was he real? Was this the real him, or was he going to change everything up one day? He had to be the leaving kind! The wretched kind that likes to toy and mess with a girl's mind for the hell of it! Emmett was just too perfect. "Stop thinking like that!" He demanded harshly, giving me a stern look.

"I'm not thinking anything." I shrugged, feigning a cool exterior.

He rolled his colored eyes. "Yes, you were. You were thinking about how fake this has to be, because it seems far too perfect." I didn't agree with his educated guess (or perhaps his impeccable mind-reading skills), nor did I deny that I was thinking exactly along those lines. "You get this wicked sour look, as if someone of a higher power just stole your best friend."

I peered up at him, I still beneath him. "If you're talking about God, I don't blame him for anything." _Not like you_, I almost added. When was the last time he called _Him_ God? Obviously, if he didn't believe in his mystical ways of blessings and miracles, he didn't call him God. It was like calling your worst enemy your best friend- you just didn't do it. "I try not to think like that. It's just hard."

He nodded. "Lots of things in life are hard, Bella. _This_ is nothing." He chuckled, pushing a strand of my hair away from my face. I always wanted my lover to do that to me, too.

And in such a moment, I felt like Sophia. Abandoned by the people whom were supposed to know me best. "Promise me you won't just leave me when I get too crazy?" his melodic laughter filled my usually empty apartment in a lovely fashion. He shook his head and kissed me, dispelling any fears I grew from my own wicked garden.

_Cry for me, cry fo__r me- You said you'd die for me. Give to me, give to me- Why won't you live for me_?

**A/N: How's that for some Em/Bella interaction?**

**Isn't he just a charming bit? Oh, I could just write a sappy dude like him all day!**

**Who else watched Thor and thought of just Navy SEAL Emmett, and not human Kellan Lutz? Me too!**

**Review, ladies and gentlemen.**


	12. You Lost Me

**Artist of the week: **

**Christina Aguilera- You Lost Me**

**James Brown- This Is A Man's World**

**I'm back! Hope you love it!**

Edward POV-

James Brown filled the room for the third hour, his tape being the only sounds that could console me. I tossed back another glass of Brandy, but she wasn't doing one good thing for me; I was just left thirsty for me. "_Man made the train, To carry the heavy load_." The verse stuck tightly in my head. I was supposed to be the one to carry the heavy load of my family, not Rosalie. And defiantly not my sister. She was supposed to enjoy her life- she was still young and single. I let this happen! I let my life be imposed on Bella, and I let Rosalie just walk away from something great we had. I put my head in my hands, nearer to the brink of tears than I ever had been. Weeping would do no good; this bum leg and aching arm did nothing to help my situation. What kind of difference could I make?

"_I think Bella is starting to like me. That's a good thing, right?" Nineteen year old Rose looked up at me as we walked around the block of my father's house. My little sister decided she didn't want to live with Rene, and I was much too obliging. Her carefree laughter lightened up the houses we walked by. "She looks just like you, Edward. Except she smiles a little more often." My girl teased me, her blonde locks around her untamed for the evening. I made love to her in New York when she was sixteen, I a year older. My dad was bouncing back and forth from the East and West coast, and like a good wife Esme was, she followed him. I had no other grounded parent, as Rene (the biological bitch) was even more of a free-floater. We were together since then, so a year later when my dad decided to take full residence in California, I proposed to her and she came back to Cali with me. _

_I was going to marry her, very soon. "Yeah, she's something. I'm just afraid of all of the things she's going to… you know, have."_

_Rose sent me a perplexed look, her hand swinging in mine as we strolled on in the warm July air. "Like what? Sex? Ed, she's only fourteen!"_

_I shook my head, getting a migraine from even fathoming who I would have to kill as soon as she became… sexually active. "Jeez, no, Rose! I mean, her thing." I muttered, not quite knowing the word to use. It was disturbing to think of my little sister becoming a woman. It was unfortunate that I was metro sexual older brother that she could come to about questions- but was what Rosalie was for. Rose was complained just a few weeks ago that all of her friends in Berkeley were either fake or confused. Bella would be the perfect girl for her._

_We stopped walking, and I turned a sharp gaze onto Rose as of why. "Edward, you mean her period?"_

"_Yeah, thanks for getting it an hour later." I rolled my eyes playfully. "If only you weren't blonde." The fiery look in her blue eyes made me groan in arousal, but her hard hit to my chest made me clench it all back in._

"_Shut your mouth, Edward! You are so stu-" and her body was putty in my hands as I kissed her lips to silence. It was easy back then to fix something stupid I did. We were so into each other, and she was completely under my thumb when I needed her to be. She trusted me. _She didn't trust me anymore.

_We had magic, And this is tragic. How will I ever trust you again?_

Bella POV-

I awoke to a series of grumbles very near my ear. I rubbed my eyes awake and sat up quickly; Sophie! The clock on the wall read seven o clock, and she didn't need to be picked up until noon. I sighed in relief… I was so close to being put in unfit-aunties-hall-of-shame. "Emmett?" I inquired softly, but soon realized that he wasn't awake, just speaking in his sleep. Last night was… well, great? I wasn't sure how to describe being with Emmett. I just knew that if I was with any other man, it wouldn't be the same. "You big, solid sleeping log." I teased and played with the small curls of his hair as I lay back down.

Yes, sex was as great as the movies portrayed it. Either it was like that with any other male, or it was only great because Emmett meant something to me. "Good morning, temptress." Em mumbled, his hazel eyes still glossy from sleep… or lack of sleep.

I rolled my eyes. "Far from a temptress."

"Not last night." His eyebrows danced in a suggestive manner. My face flamed up as he laughed; that was so embarrassing! I didn't want him to even remember how awful and awkward I was last night. He was so fluid and skilled in everything he did. It must have been the worst experience he ever had. I turned my back and went to leave the bed in a flurry of shame, but his bronze arm shot out and clutched onto my waist. "Don't leave the bed. You haven't cuddled me yet." His begging eyes were too much.

Emmett POV-

I had never been with a virgin, mostly because I respected women whom respected themselves. Virgins were just too… frigid and scared. But Bella- she was so brave and trusting of me. I hadn't intended on taking her innocence, because I vowed since the beginning that I would allow her to keep her gift; I wanted her to give it to someone impressive, someone without an ugly scar. I wanted her share that "special" night with some handsome dude she could fondly remember when she was sixty and surrounded by her thousand grandchildren. I wanted her to be on the fast track to a life that she could be forever happy with. These few weeks of euphoria was wonderful, but I knew when I left back to North Carolina, she would find someone else. They would be local, and willing to meet her every standard. I could be easily replaced, I knew that.

So when her tiny, cold finger played with my hair, I could have died of happiness. I was with many women in my life, the Navy uniform and my imposing stature giving me a free game card with nearly any woman I wanted. "Good morning, temptress." I willed my body to wake up. Bella was unlike any women I had ever been with. She was explosive, and so very tempting without even trying. Last night was the ambrosia of my hunger- it was perhaps the happiest moment in my whole life. I knew I wanted to be with her forever, and I knew that wasn't likely. Last night punched me in the gut, and I had no defense.

Since when did I let women touch me after sex? Well, Bella and I didn't have sex- we made love. "Far from a temptress." She never knew what exactly was. Bella was sexy, alluring, and the greatest part of my life, evermore.

I didn't know how to say those things to her. "Not last night." I wiggled my body in a taunting gesture because that worked with most women, the whole teasing thing. My Bella took it too personal and got all huffy, a betraying blush showing her inner embarrassment to all who looked. I felt like an asshole when she moved away from me and attempted to leave the cozy bed (which was not half the size of my four poster). My hand shot out and kept her there with me. I would keep her with me, no matter what. "Don't leave the bed. You haven't cuddled me yet."

Bella's eyes were filled with mirth, and gone was the animosity. One step at a time, I would make her my woman. She wouldn't know how to live without me there with her, as I didn't how to breathe without her constantly reminding me.

_This is a man's world, But it wouldn't be nothing'- Not one little thing without,_

_A woman or a girl._


	13. Lost In Love

**Rated M for a reason**.

His hand traveled the length of my leg, then dipped into the moist triangle of what my world had been centered on for the past two days. Sex. Oh, I knew now what I had been missing all of those years. I supposed that it would have never been so great had it been casual and unmeaning, like it wasn't with Emmett. I craved his touch whenever he wasn't around me, and I went nearly mad when he was too tired to release me of my strain. Em's hand juked my senses and left my pulsating walls, instead traveling up my flat stomach and the wrapped over my hip bone. His hazel eyes caught mine as he nipped softly at the sensitive skin of my knee, then farther down to my inner thigh. I had just finished showering (alone, of course) when he came back in from his routine run around the neighborhood. All sweaty and smelling of pure male testosterone (was there any other kind?), I assumed I was supposed to be repulsed by the assault to my senses.

But instead, it turned me on and with all my strength, I dragged him to my room and here we were. I mean, I wasn't any sort of slick temptress or overly-aggressive bed partner. At least, I didn't think I was. "Emmett!" I hissed, not able to push the burning feeling of my lower lips away much longer. He knew precisely how to tease. His mouth finally found my entrance, and the wonders he did to my body…oh, it was scream-worthy. And scream I did. It embarrassed me sometimes how vocal I was. He assured me it was fine and completely sexy to voice my pleasure, I but I still wasn't too keen on the screeching noises I made. It seemed too unnatural.

His tongue lapped at the bud of my womanhood (as I didn't know how to explain it any other way); the feel of his smooth tongue along the soft walls of my vagina was too much to handle, along with the territorial way he looked at me. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to feel like I was exploding and peeing at the same time, but that was what an "Emmett Orgasm" felt like. It was like completely letting go of everything. "Mine." He murmured against my skin, relishing in the fact that he could start and stop my brink of insanity at any moment he wished. "Your body is mine, Bella. I make you whither, I make you plead. You're mine." He hissed, sliding two fingers into the heated mess he created. my eyes shot closed and my lower half rose to meet the thrusts of his fingers. Oh, that was divine.

He got all weird on me when he gave oral sex. It was always "you're mine" this and "your body belongs to me" that; I had never had sex with anyone before, and so I could only assume that was normal… _kink_ talk? Emmett was a macho man, and so it would be only normal that he went into chauvinistic rants when only _he_ was giving pleasure. We did have a conversation about me returning the favor, but he knew that I really wasn't too keen on it. I was still learning and trying to understand everything about it. "Yes, Emmett." I purred, wanting to lather him in ego-stroking material for a quick release. "I belong to you." I moaned loudly when his stroking ministrations turned into hard pumps, and it was all I had to keep myself afloat.

In two seconds, he had me flipped over onto my stomach. "Lift yourself and press your weight on your palms and knees." He whispered into my ear, making my heart race with every word. It was the sexiest thing to hear him talk like that. It showed his true Commanding Officer rankings. I did as he said; only wanting him back inside of my body. But then I froze up a little… what exactly where we going to do? One aspect of sex that I made clear was left off-limits was anal sex, and that because it was harmful as much as it was unattractive to me. Was he testing my boundaries? Or were we going to have regular intercourse… like this? I had my answer as soon as his shaft slid inside of my vagina, emitting a loud growl of unexpected pleasure from my mouth.

Would these sounds haunt him as much as they would me in the next week?

We were completely nude, two bodies as bare as they were when they came into this world; the muscles rippled in his thick arms as he thrust fully, causing my whole bed to rock with the motion of our love making. I felt his larger body fully encompass me as he pounded into my body, and it was the sweetest feeling of being home that I had ever felt. There, on my bed I felt at home. Sure, Mr. and Mrs. Cullen were kind enough foster parents and their house was always open for me. But this, with Emmett, felt so real and natural and it felt like forever. It felt wonderful. "Bella." He repeated my name over and over again, pushing himself harder and deeper with every syllable. I clutched the pillows beneath me, grasping at whatever former resolve I owned. I could tell this was an addictive drug of mine- how would I deal without him?

My third orgasm of the morning dispelled all of those negative thoughts as I slumped, my hands and knees no longer supporting my weight. Instead, Emmett wrapped one arm around my chest and his other hand grasped the top of my headboard; I saw and felt just what SEAL training did for him. His withhold of release and physical strength never ceased to amaze me; he really was an amazing, handsome creature. "Oh, Bella!" He grunted, and spewed about his sweet release within his member's nightcap. "Bella." He murmured in my hair as we both took our calming breaths, trying to recover from the love we made. Sure, it wasn't love-love, but it _was_ love. Love was utter bliss, and _that_ was definitely utter bliss. The words hadn't been exchanged, but we understood each other. That was just another reason we fit together so perfectly.

**Two days later-**

"What did you _expect_ me to think? You think I'm some kind of _mind_-reader, like I know just when you're going to decide to skip out on dinner and share a meal with some friends? You said you didn't even _have_ any friends here!" I yelled angrily, tossing the used pans and utensils in the sink. It was so stupid of me to think that his last week here was going to be peaceful and so full of happiness. Well, fuck all those misleading fairy tales out there! They were pure and utter bullshit, and I was having no more of it!

"I never said that! You never asked if I had any friends in San Diego!" Emmett growled back, slapping his fist down on the marble table counter.

"Oh, well you're just Mr. Popular, I forgot! You have friends _everywhere_." I rolled my eyes and bustled around the medium-sized kitchen, making a much louder than necessary noise than I needed to. Our bickering began when his phone went off late Saturday night, and he left the bed to answer it. When I asked who it was, he told me it was none of my concern. None of my concern? At three o clock in the morning? Fuck _concern_! But to keep the peace, I let it go. The next night, he answered a call again (this time during the day) but walked away from me pointedly. I followed him and inquired once more, to which he again silenced me. I waited patiently until he was done with his private call to began the bitching, just incase it might have been his dad.

But it wasn't. It was Mellissa, and they had a close enough relationship to be all giggly-friendly. I was more appeased that he was honest about it being another female, and so I didn't push his buttons. Until she called once more last night; I flipped my lid and snatched the phone from the nightstand and read the flashing new text message. _We need to hook up again. I could use a stress reliever, baby._ Those two vomit-inducing sentences were stuck in my head; they played over like a bad movie for days. I tried hard not to be the crazy, psycho girlfriend. And I tried to not let my jealousy get the best of me. But all of that put together with the fact that he went out to the gym at three and didn't show back up at the house until eight was just a little too much for me. Is this what sex did to people?

It made them bitter and angry? It allowed them to do as they pleased, without telling their girlfriend anything? "Are you still on about Mellissa?" Emmett shoved a chair from his path and stored angrily until we were nose to chest. "I have already gone through this a million times. Mellissa is a casual fuck I had back in North Carolina, before we were serious about each other. She knows she means nothing, and you need to realize that to. Cut this jealousy shit out now, Bella, its real _fucking_ unattractive!"

I spun around and faced him, stubbing a harsh finger into his chest. "Well, I wasn't even talking about that stupid whore! But now that you bring it up, I agree." I screamed, not caring if the neighbors heard and judged me. "Lack of integrity is _real_ fucking unattractive!" I spat and stormed away from him. I was in desperate fear or picking something up and throwing it at him. Look at what were singled down to! Cussing, raging people who had no respect for one another. What was I thinking, inviting him into my home without my brother's approval first? I thought I was big bad Bella, ready to take on the world all on her own. Well, I wasn't ready!

"So what, I bumped into some friends in the weight room. We dropped by a bar, watched a game, and had some drinks! What is even wrong with that?" He angrily called, not allowing me to walk away from the fight while we were still civil.

When I rounded on him, I knew my eyes were flashing with something close to ornery evilness. "How about I flake on you and your niece, whom won't shut up about _Emmett_ and the lack of your oh-so-great presence? How about you make dinner every night, and wait around for a boyfriend that goes and comes as he pleases!"

Emmett growled. "So, you're saying that I have no integrity? Because I make my _own_ decisions and don't develop _all_ of my plans around you?"

"I never asked you to change anything for me! _Jesus Christ_, is this what happens when you let a man fuck you?" I replied bitterly. "Is the sex not exciting after the fourth day?" my mouth went on without my consent. Emmett was going to object, but I only pointed a shaking hand to the door. "Just leave, Emmett! I don't want to look at you! I don't want you touching or speaking to me! Get the fuck out." I roared like a fearless lion, with no inhibitions and no feelings. He knew I wasn't nearly as strong as I wanted to be, but he gave me one last long look before he wrenched the door open, stomped out, and slammed it shut.

He left; he really left, just up and walked out. A fleeting weak bone in my body wanted to fly out of the door and apologize for the whole stupid fight, but the majority of my being own out. I hated him! I loathed him! I cursed him! My stocking-clad legs wobbled as I leaned into the back of the couch for support. Why did he treat me like this? Why did he make me so weak and willing? In a streak of blind anger, I pushed the teetering plant stand over roughly, causing the lilies in the glass to fall and the vase completely shattered. It was my favorite vase; why would I do such a thing? I whimpered as I fell to my knees and stared down at the shards of clear glass. Just what was I making of my single life?

"Auntie?" Sophia inquired shakily, walking from the shadow of the hallway and into the light of the living room. "What's going on?"

I shut my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. How I was supposed to explain this to her? "Nothing, Sophie. I'm sorry for the yelling, I'll make sure to keep it down next time." I sent her a light smile, trying to break the mood we were in.

"Where's Uncle Emmie? Where did he go?" She yelled, reminding me of myself all too keenly. Just who did she think she was?

I was the adult here, and I was the one handling the situation. I was the one to do the yelling! "Keep your tone down! He went out, Sophia. Is that alright with you?" I replied spitefully, moving back into the kitchen. This wasn't easy, and it the situation kept getting harder.

"You made him leave, didn't you? You made him go away, and now he's not coming back!" Her face turned beet red as she climbed the wooden chair and got on top of the table, kicking the plate I set for Emmett and I a few hours ago. The two glass plates shattered as soon as they hit the tiled floor. "You made him leave just like you made my mommy leave; it's all your fault, Bella, its all your fault!" Sophia was screaming, and her tone was as ornery as it ever had been. I was slightly taken aback by her statement; she really thought I made all of this happen? I had nothing to do with Rosalie leaving! Emmett was the one that decided he was going to be sly and avoid me! How dare this little girl make that kind of big kid assumption?

But I didn't scream at her or slide to the floor in exhaustion. I pointed a threatening finger at her as I walked toward her shaking body atop my expensive table. She was breaking so many rules, without even thinking. God, she really was me! "Don't you climb on my furniture like that, ever again!" I growled angrily. "And you are no one to get into my business and start blaming me for things I did not do. You think you're a big girl now, Sophia? You think you're all grown up because your dad isn't here to put you in line?" I became inches away from her face; we were both seething, angry girls ready to face off. "Newsflash, honey- _I_ am the adult here. You don't make the rules here, and you need to get your act together." I was superbly calm as I spoke, trying my hardest to keep my temper and anger under control. I had to remember that I wasn't mad at her, I was mad at Emmett.

I wasn't my mother; I would never take my anger our on another individual who was undeserving of it. "Go to your room and get some nice, long sleep. You've got chores up the ass tomorrow." Her eyes welled with tears; whether it was all caused by the fact that she had finally received repercussions for her actions, or because she finally understood just what she said. Either way, I wasn't dealing with it. "Go." I had a warning tone to my voice that made her nearly fly off of her bottom and skirt to her room. The door shut loudly, but I wasn't worried about her little temper right now. I had seen the bad, and the worst for inevitably over.

My legs finally gave out and I crumpled to the floor; angry, hot tears flowed in multiples down my cheek and below my chin. Why was this happening to me? I only wanted a quiet lifestyle, and I only wanted to please my brother by emailing Emmett McCartney. How had things gotten so complicated? When did our innocent flirting turn into a whirlwind romance, stretching the miles of East to West Coast?

When was Rosalie coming back? I couldn't take another month of playing mother to a girl who wanted a real one. I couldn't stand that my brother was beating himself up about a fact of life that he couldn't change. Emmett was my temporary rock, but he was gone now. Everybody I loved, and everybody I needed left me. Even Sophia hated me now.

I finally stood up and instinctively reached for the house phone. My fingers went to the menu's space, and I went through the numbers I had accumulated through the years. _Alice, Avery, Benjamin, Corbin (NSA Advocate), Danny, Dominique (NSA advocate), Eddie & Rose, Emmett, Esme & Carlisle._ I always assumed the list ended there. But my finger pressed the key down and another number popped. _Mom_. Mom? When had I put that woman's number in my landline menu? And why would I put her number under a parental title that she never was? Most of the list was unavailable (or had left me for broke) and the NSA people were a no-go; the last thing I needed was my fellow employees to know my personal turmoil.

Could i… call her? I mean, she was my mother. And she had to have some sort of constructive advice for me. Would the number even be good anymore? She was always moving around, and Rene never stayed with one Phone Company for too long. I shrugged and dialed the number anyway, wiping away the excess moisture on my face. After a few rings, her cheery voice came on. "Hello?" My throat ran dry and words were impossible for me. Is that what she really sounded like? I hadn't heard her voice in a very long time. "Hello? Who's this?" Rene didn't even have my number, and that wasn't any real surprise. Why would a gypsy woman keep her only daughters stable, four year old number?

"B-b… Bella." I spluttered out. "It's me, Bella," I clarified, not knowing if she would ask "which Bella?" That was would ruin the moment, and I would definitely hang up.

"Oh, dear! Isabella, how have you been?" I always loved her soft, bell-like voice. She was always so perfect to me, even when I knew she wasn't. "It's been so long since I've seen you, beautiful daughter of mine! What has it been- five, six years?"

"Eight years, mom." I murmured, not knowing why I even kept count. It was so long ago that I separated from her. I was already twenty-one, long gone from childhood. It was a stupid idea to even call her. Why was I hurting myself? Did I like the way pain felt? Was I truly a glutton for misery? "And I'm fine. It's just been a long week."

It was quit for a small moment on the other line. "Thank you for calling. I thought you'd never dial my digits."

I chuckled. "Yeah, well, I felt like it was the right moment. How are you? Still a feminist for Labor of Women?"

"Oh, no! Ended that years ago. The whole feminist-with-no-man thing was taking its toll on me. Made me feel trapped and reclusive! Actually, I met Phil two years ago. He's the mining business and takes good care of me. I haven't been this in love since I was with your dad, Bella." She giggled loudly, tossing a few things in the background to make noise. "Speaking of Charlie, have you spoken to him lately?"

I sighed; I really didn't want to get into this. "Not in a few years. He called one Thanksgiving to invite me over, but I declined. I wasn't ready to meet a stranger and pretend I knew him."

"Yes, well, I know what you mean. Avoid it rather than dwell in the awkwardness and uncomfortable aura. Ugh, getting to know someone all over again is such a drag! I'd rather just move on and replace it." I was struck dumb at what she said; that sounded just like me! Did I make the decision to not see Charlie, because I really was just like my mom and wanted to avoid anything I thought I could run far enough away from? I never ever wanted to be like her! I wasn't a quitter, a runner, a leaver! I didn't give up one people, or children like she did. "Are you still there, Bella?"

"Yeah, yeah I am. Look, I gotta go. It was… nice talking to you, mom." I stuttered out, not wanting to say any of that.

"And it was nice to hear from you, too, dear." Rene then hung up; the old woman was probably glad to be done with the whole conversation, rather than outed that I ended the three minutes conversation.

I needed to get in touch with my dad. I needed to fix what was between us before we became rotten, completely closed-off father and daughter. This helped me not think about the love lost with Emmett.

It made me feel good that I was able to move on and grovel over him. I just needed to stop thinking about his touch for now.


	14. Brown Sugar

**A/N: ARTIST OF THE WEEK!**

**D'ANGELO.**

**The song I used is called "Brown Sugar"- this song is so funky and spirited, it matched Bella and Emmett nicely right here!**

Bella POV-

I tossed my useless toothbrush in the sink and flicked off the lights of my linked bathroom. It had been two days, and Sophia still wasn't talking to me. What was is supposed to say to her? What did she expect me to do? This was completely out of my hands. A slow song played on my Pandora list, filling up my small bedroom with the low notes of Norah Jones. Why couldn't I just pick up the phone and call him? I couldn't run away forever, and these two days were the longest of my life. My phone vibrated loudly on top of my nightstand and it took all I had not to run to it like a silly schoolgirl awaiting the answer to a check-yes-if-you-like-me note.

The caller ID was him- not my brother, or Alice to distract me from the real problem. It was Emmett, calling for whatever reason. "Hello." I cleared my throat and spoke into the receiver, patiently waiting for his reply.

"Bella." He cooed through the phone, making my knees weaken, but I leaned against the wall for support. I wasn't going down that easy. He was going to have to try harder. "What are you doing right now?"

I rolled my eyes. Oh, _now_ he wanted to conversate? Why not just comment on the rainy weather, hmm? "I just put Sophie to bed, with more fuss than she's ever given me. Huffy little brat these days." Sophie was mean and angry with me, and I suppose I set us both up for failure when I brought Emmett around. He was a whimsical passion I wanted to sate, and I never expected to meet him when I already had my niece to take care of. I always assumed things would be natural and flowly. It wasn't even close!

His deep chuckle brought a little smile to my face. "That's my girl." It saddened me that because of our problems, Sophie had to suffer most. "Tell her to straighten up that attitude, else big bad Uncle Emmett is gonna have to give her a talk." I rolled my eyes- Emmett was putty in her little hands and he knew it! Sophia had him wrapped around her little finger, and she could do anything she wanted under his watch.

"She missed you." I blurted and covered my mouth as soon as I said it. Why did I have to ruin everything? I was so angry with myself that I was capable of tearing anything within sight to pieces. I didn't want to be a stupid, nitwit bimbo faithfully awaiting his return. Emmett wasn't welcome in to my life if he was going to see other women. But oh, talking to him made things so difficult. "She's been so angry with me, Emmett, and there's not a thing I can do." I whispered, and clutched my forehead with an open hand. "My own niece screamed at me the other day, and it took all of the little patience I had left not to just… hit her." I sucked in a shaky breath quietly, shedding all of the big, wet problems I had been holding in. "I don't know what I'm doing anymore, and I'm sorry for kicking you out. I'm sorry that I was such an asshole and took everything out on you, it was my own insecurities that made all of this-"

"Shhh." He murmured into the line. "Take a breath, Bella." I did as he instructed and felt a certain cool go over me, as if he were standing right beside me. I heard someone in the else- a loud, hearty laugh booming in the background. Where was he? "I gotta go, Bella." My heart dropped, right out of my chest and fell thumping on the floor. The walls of my room, of pomegranate-red paint, seemed to be spinning and colliding like the big waves of California's coastlines. Humiliation wasn't quite the word for my feelings. I put myself out there, and I got exactly what I was asking for. "Sorry." He murmured before disconnecting the line completely.

A strangled sigh left my open mouth, my lower lip nearly touching the floor in my anew shock. He hung up on me and neglected the "talk" about our relationship, and all I got was a shitty sorry? Sorry for what? For talking to a sleazy bitch in the middle of the night, or sorry for hanging up quickly without hearing the rest of my pathetic excuse for retribution? The station switched to another song, a loud and chirpy kind of tune. I was quick to shut it off and slam the laptop's top down harshly.

Oh, who was I these days? I felt miserable and lonely, more than ever before. I considered phoning my father, trying to reconnect with the man who wanted as little say in my life as possible. Would I feel better if I heard a few wise words from him? Esme and Carlisle had their hands full with Edward, and I didn't want to be one more nuisance on their long list. But there was no way I would call Charlie and admit all of my "abandonment issues", so I dropped down onto my plush bed and cried.

Emmett POV-

"Nice to see you, man! Your old lady isn't keeping the leash on you tonight?" Paul teased me, his burly shoulders and rough voice surfacing me back to reality. Bella couldn't stay out of my fucking mind long enough to process a real response, so I merely shook my head and kept treading ahead. Paul and some of our other buddies from awhile back agreed to meet up at Ben's Bar & Grill for some man-to-man time before I left back to North Carolina, where instead of being ten miles down the road from Bella, we would be hundreds of kilometers a part. Things were going so great for us, what kind of shit did I put myself in?

Bella was the finest piece of ass I had ever seen, and she had the sweetest voice to match. Sophia was an extra bonus to the package- what kind of real man didn't respect his girl for bringing in and taking care of a child that wasn't her own? Bella had some balls and her, and never gave up on Ed's little girl. "You look spaced, man, are you cool?" Garret, a lower ranking friend of mine, called from across the table.

"Nah, I'm good." I brushed off the minor inspection, and they easily went back into a heated conversation over the latest Packer's game. "I've just been starving like a bitch." I laughed harshly, trying my hardest to enjoy the little time I had with these guys. Garret, Able, and Cauis had all families now. Paul was the only lonely drifter like me, with no real ties anywhere at any given time. That quality about us made it easy for the service to ship us where they wanted and needed us, hassle-free to the finish.

"That girl of yours doesn't feed your ass, or what?" Garret quipped. He always was the loud mouth, asshole of my friends. But he was stable, dependable, and funny when he wasn't thinking about his next piece of ass.

"Yeah." I shrugged, not wanting to get into that with them. The bar and grill Cauis picked was modern enough, albeit with a chill playlist sorting itself from Indie to classic rock, all the way back to contemporary blue grass- the playlist may as well have been called "Bella" because it was a mix of genres that she loved_. "__See, we be making love constantly, That's why my eyes are a shade of blood burgundy."_ I thought of Bella's body beneath mine as I took her for the first time- the way she looked into my eyes and right through my soul. I remembered how she cried into my bare chest as Bella allowed me to take the virtue of her womanhood. What was I doing with it now? I was dragging her lovely virtue and integrity through the dirt, all for a misunderstanding that I didn't have enough balls to stand up and explain to her about.

"This Bella girl is real cute, guys. Emmett here swooped her up before she knew it." The table erupted in wild catcalls and nasty little jibes. Paul often commented on her beauty, but I never paid much attention. If I did, I might have had the urge to slam his face right against the double-paned window beside him. Paul did me the ultimate favor and changed the conversation, switching to his recent girlfriend's latest bitch-fit over living arrangements. I peered down at my phone, contemplating whether two days were enough for Bella to calm down. We never got into little spats before, and definitely nothing close to the fight we had recently.

Oh, I could strangle Mellissa Earhardt for fucking everything up for me. She wasn't necessarily an "ex" of mine, as there was never a real relationship established between the two of us. We were merely two people that met one lonely night, and the rest was history for the next two years. She was my outlet for the frustration and stress of work and taking care of my dad, and I was a passionate lay for her. We used each other, not in exactly ways, but we both met in an agreement to keep it all very casual and simple. Sure, Bella wasn't exactly judgmental and had been open to a lot of things in my life, but I didn't expect her to just accept Mellissa's presence in my past. I wanted nothing to do with Mellissa once Bella entered my life- Bella was the Mother Teresa to every one of my problems. She was salvation served on a nice, shiny little platter.

But Bella was a worry-wart to a fault. I knew she would get all of these crazy ideas and worry about what would happen once I left. I contemplated telling her about my "friends", but finally decided against it. Things like "Is there another woman waiting for him", or "Is he going back to that Mellissa girl when he leaves me". I didn't want venomous thoughts like that make her mind filthy and complicated. But Mellissa had to blow up my phone until I just answered one night. How was I supposed to know Bella cared about who I was talking to? I never once played twenty questions with her when she on the phone. So a snappy "_it's none of your business_" left my mouth before I really thought about it.

The second time was stupid. She called to tell me about one of the regulars at her dusty bar flipping his lid and jumping into a shotgun wedding, and turned in an application to her to use the bar as his reception area. Chuck Jackson was a withered fellow, with stringy blond hair and a drooping face to match. With not much money under his belt and a rundown shack for a mansion, I wasn't so sure how he was going to woo his undecided bride. How was I supposed to laugh at some thing like that with Bella? She wouldn't know the situation, and therefore couldn't understand why it was so funny. And it wasn't like Mellissa and Bella were going to meet anytime in the history of the Earth. Mellissa was prima and clean like a regular human, but her nails were sharp and her tongue was quick. When she thought something, she said it.

The text… well, there was no real explanation for the text. I couldn't come out and say "No, Bella, I haven't screamed it from the rooftops that I have a girlfriend yet. By the way, when exactly did we become girlfriend and boyfriend?" That would just further piss her off. I understood that she felt betrayed, hell anyone would! But I took no part in Mellissa's little game to try and "turn me on". She always sent little messages like that at odd hours back in North Carolina, and it was never that big of deal before. Before Bella, I would answer to them and meet her at her house. After Bella, I just wouldn't text back, or make a lame excuse to not hook up. "How long are you in town for, by the way?" Paul questioned with a side-glance.

"A week." I muttered and dug into my chicken pasta, loving the way the warm food made me feel calm all over again. But it wasn't Bella's chicken pasta, and so I realized that I had been eating plain, nasty pasta that lacked Bella's special seasonings and pazaz my whole life. That was it; I got up and walked out the restaurant without a word to my friends- Paul would make up a good enough excuse for me. I needed to explain everything to Bella, right now.

She picked up on the fourth ring, and I was never more grateful for my stupid ass cell phone than I was when she answered with a low, "hello". I noted her shivering voice and short syllable answers. My arms ached to be around her, and my mouth itched to press itself against her pale throat. I wanted her at that moment, with nothing like time and traveling in between. When she began her madman apology mantra, I couldn't take it anymore. I said I had to go and sent a lame sorry her way before walking past a few college kids in the direction of my car. Bella was my girl; she was the last thrill I had left in life. There was no way I was losing her now.

**A/N: So, now we know he's not THAT great of a douche, right?**

**Oh my, men can be so very confusing sometimes. Here's a little CHALLENGE!**

**Review/PM me with any experiences that you can relate with Emmett and Bella's little mishap. Ever flip over a text/phone call/ex? Ever kick a spouse out over something that could have been actually dealt with? I'd like to hear about it! : ). **


	15. Don't Break Even

**A/N:**

**ARTIST OF THE WEEK:**

**The Script! I am a lover of many of their songs, but the one I used was "Breakeven".**

_**Emmett POV-**_

I was close to the street she lived on, two blocks away actually. The cheap brand of techno music blared from the stereo system of my rental car- I bought it in the ignorant realm of loneliness when I assumed I would never talk to Bella again. Thinking about it now, I realized how stupid that was; people in a stable relationship got in arguments and communicated often. I was just so used to pushing problems aside and plainly just leaving. Communicating with women wasn't a strong point of mine, and the Navy surely didn't care to train me in those aspects. I tapped the leather binding of the steering wheel and cleared my throat again. What was taking my car so long to get to her house? I still didn't know all of the shortcuts of San Diego like Bella did, but I vowed to learn as much as I could about the venue- I planned on visiting San Diego very often. "Come on." I muttered to the slow Crown Vic in front of me, crawling at a snail pace over the pot holes of Ocean road. It was ridiculous!

I turned up the music and leaned back in my seat, almost hating the way the music hurt my ears. I wanted to see Bella's pleasant face and I wanted to hold her again. I wanted to smell Sophie's soft hair and sit in little chairs at her teddy bear tea party. Issues were going to be settled, and I was going to be a better man this time. This time was going to work.

_**Rosalie POV-**_

The universal remote stilled in my hand as I clicked onto a wonderful channel, where several men in their darling Blues stood posted before their dead brother's coffin and performed the 21 Gun salute to the T. A sudden thought passed through my head; Edward could have been one of those men, lying there in that awful casket with an ID stamped DECEASED- and where I would be then? Would it have taken something that awful tot urn my taxi around? In such a case, there wouldn't be any of these mixed emotions, and I would have had no reason left to hate him. I shook my head to rid of those thoughts and switched off the TV, hating the advanced flat screened television set for putting those crazy thoughts in my head.

Sitting in this empty living room, I missed Edward so much. My mom prattled on about my dead father, complaining about God knows what again. Why couldn't she let a dead man rest in peace? It was always something negative and poor about his memory, even if he left her in this lap of luxury that she gladly wallowed in. I picked up my bejeweled cell phone and dialed his number for the third time that day, but my stubborn finger wouldn't press the green 'call' button. I was stuck on the seven digits that belonged to him, and I felt like I was always going to be stuck right there. There was no moving on from Edward, but there was no going back to him. I rubbed a soothing hand over, under, and around my tummy to give my unborn baby a piece of mind. I was one week shy of my eighth month mark, and my family was known to deliver a month before our given date- I did it with Sophie.

"_**And what am I supposed to do**_

_**When the best part of me was always you?**_

_**And what am I supposed to say**_

_**When I'm all choked up and you're okay?"**_

My cousins were so excited when I gave my excuse, saying that I wanted to have my second child around my own birthplace- but I loved Sophie's birth. Sure, it was an eighteen hour birth and there was nothing easy about it, but I had the two most important people in my life with me. Edward and my very own little sister, Bella- she was the one holding one of my legs, cooing soothing words at me when I was ready to kill my husband for putting the demon inside of me. Here in Manhattan, I was the ringleader and whatever I said went. No one was there to tell me to wait for a few more pushes before I took the Epidermal, and I doubted any family of mine was going to deny anything I asked. Then again, I _never _asked. I just did it.

The thought brought tears to my eyes and I let them flow freely. I hated being here- Manhattan was so crowded and I felt cluttered in traffic every time we went out. I missed the clean beaches in San Diego, I missed calling Bella over for stupid problems, and I missed my little girl. A sudden feeling coursed through my bones as I stood up and wobbled to my old room, where my bags were splayed all round the room. I snatched coats and pants from the hanging armoire and folded my maternity shirts in the according suitcases. Trains were easy to catch in Grand Central, and connecting flights were dime a dozen in the middle. I needed to get back to California and collect my life, however the shambles looked when they fell behind my back. "Home." I mumbled softly before slamming down the large flap of my suitcase.

"Rosalie? What in heavens are you doing?" My mother sauntered into my room and pushed my hands away from the suitcase I was finishing. I shrugged and went to another carry on and began filling it up with both new and old articles of my life. There were a lot of framed pictures and teenage memorabilia I left behind when I was seventeen- I wanted to take that with me and go back to my life. _My _life. "Why are you packing your bags? You shouldn't be up moving around so much; little miss sunshine is bound to come popping out any minute." The warning in my mother's smile sent shivers down my spine, but I wasn't seventeen anymore. I wasn't going to be gullied into _running away_, I was going to pack my stuff and walk right out the front door! "You'd be foolish to consider spending time with your Aunt Tanya in the Bronx, she's always so wrapped in _work_." the sarcastic tone she emphasized her last word with made me fume with frustration.

"No, I'm not going to visit my aunt. I'm going home!" I quickly began to put things in untagged bags and zoomed around the room with the task at hand. "I'm gathering my things and taking the first train I can get back to San Diego. This is just too much for me."

"What is too much? Since when has being pampered and surrounded by caring family too much on a person? We're here to help and love you, and you obviously know that- why else would you have traveled all the way here to have your baby?" I shook my head at her tone and the sickly sweet smile on her plastic face. Lauren Hale was my mother, wasn't she supposed to know everything about me? How in hell did she actually believe that stupid cover-up? But I steadily ignored her and kept packing. "I think it would be best for you to sit down and take a deep breath. This is quite obviously one of the lows of your hormones; remember to think deeply about a decision before you make it."

"Oh, what do you know?" I lashed out angrily. This woman wasn't a mother, I raised myself growing up! She was just a fill-in adult that I often referred to for more of my less important problems. "I didn't ask for plastic surgeon referrals, nor did I want to know what you think about the black president!" My voice was growing heavier, but I didn't care. "What other reason would you have to open your mouth? You don't care about my unborn child, nor do you care about the one that is almost seven years old!" I screamed angrily, tossing a light throw pillow at her from across the bed. "I love Edward, Mom, and we had a fight- that's it. I came here to get a break and center on this baby, but I couldn't!" She looked surprised but recovered quickly.

"And that is my fault?" Lauren took a defensive stance with one hand on her hip and the other holding the nape of her neck. "I told you ten years ago that he was no good, and he's done nothing but take you away from your friends and family! That soldier boy is nothing but trouble! And together with that lost little sister of his? You didn't need that sort of baggage when you were so young; you missed out on all of the wonderful, less complicated boys of your own standing! Only now you've realized this!" The look on my face must have said it all, because the old bitch took a tiny step backwards.

"Edward and Bella _are _my family, not all of these people that pretend to care about me here! I left every single penny to you, I haven't touched my inheritance since I bought that air ticket ten years ago. I've never asked you for anything but to understand why I love him so much. You couldn't even do that!" I replied spitefully. "You were nothing but a chorus girl when Dad met you, and look at you now." I gestured to the expensive things in my room and beyond. He gave her everything she wanted, and she gave him me. "Imagine if he had listened to his wise father and left you in the slumps the day you surprised him with a pregnancy; there would be no more minx coats, no more lavish meals, and absolutely no "standing". Your kind would be squatting!" I referred to her heroin addict father, whom was often referred to as a "squatter" by Grandfather Hale.

"How dare you say something like that! Your father loved me-" My mother began to surmise, but I stopped her dead in her tracks.

"And I love Edward. Get out of my way, or I will promise to step right over you." I growled angrily, and she made way very quickly for me. Bags in tow, I stalked to the front door and stopped abruptly at the elevator shaft, where a kind bellboy grabbed my things and helped carry them to my mother's private driver. I shut my eyes as Trini made his way through midday traffic- that wasn't the note I wanted end on; I didn't want to be a bitter old woman, carrying around self loathing because of that one last fight I had with my mom. But I didn't want to end like Lauren either, a woman that followed every piece of bad advice served by her own mother! Parenting and growing up didn't come with instructions or some magical handbook, but I was learning what mistakes were and I knew just how to fix things- at least for right now.

"Where to, Ms. Hale?" Trini questioned politely, his thick accent butchering the name I no longer owned. I wanted to be back in my city, where guys on base called me "Mrs. Swan" and "M'am" when they saw me. It was a wonderful feeling to be known and respected for the ever-changing person I was! My mom told none of my family that Edward and I were legally married, and neither did she tell anyone that I was expecting another kid.

"Grand Central." I muttered lowly, not meeting his tired eyes or slow smile.

"Leaving so soon, Ms. Hale? You must have someone important waiting for you back in the California." He always addressed my home "the California" seeing as he had never been there but always heard about it. I nodded and emitted a low chuckle.

"Yes, I do." Three very important people. "My name is Cullen, now, by the way."

"Mrs. Cullen?" He tested it out on his tongue and smiled wider. "Such a name fits you, Mrs. Cullen." I only hoped so; I wanted that name to fit me for the rest of my life. My days of being a "Hale" were over, and I hated that surname anyway!

I thought about Edward's arms, how they fit so snug around me, and the wonderful make-up sex we would have when this baby was finally born.


	16. You Were Always On My Mind

**A/N: Okay, going to admit something- I cried while writing this chapter. I lost someone very, very dear to my heart in the War- and when I started writing the emotional scenes I felt like I had the greatest inspiration.**

**ARTIST OF THE WEEK- Willie Nelson.**

**The song I used is called "You Were Always On My Mind". **

**He's always on my mind.**

"Xavius Jonathon McCartney lived a long life, and he weathered through the ups and downs of everyday functioning…" His eyes trained forward, but the amount of pain in his expression was hidden well by the dressed Blues he wore proudly. A few of his aunts and uncles from around the county showed up, his handful of Christian aunties praying into their gloved hands while his burly uncles tried to block out Pasture Mark's congregation in front of the church. Emmett wanted to scream, _no, my father wasn't even a Christian!_ But that would upset his Aunt Paula, and maybe even his Uncle Randy. There were his siblings by blood, and so they felt the need to put together the whole thing. "But he will rest in eternal heaven, and by our Father's hand may be he be led down the righteous path, guided by His resonating light." Pasture Mark finished quickly, sensing the immense displeasure from McCartney senior's only son.

Death did horrible things to people- just yesterday, his Uncle Randy and the whore of a wife he married argued insistently about what would be done with the memorial's flowers and ribbon decorations once the service was through. He shook his head spitefully and directed his gaze at the open casket a few pews away from him. The grim reaper swooped up his father just like that, and all he could think was that he wasn't there to help ease the process. He was on the other side of the country, chasing tail and drinking with friends- of course, Isabella Swan met more than that to him, and those friends hadn't seen him for years, but how else would anyone from his hometown see it? No one knew the exactly story, but they were pretty sure they where Emmett had been when his father's soul passed from this realm unto the next.

He didn't want to be in front of the party, seeing as his aunts and uncles would have made more of a fuss than anything else, but he didn't want to be far in the back, where he wouldn't be able to an eye on his resting father. His family, one at a time, said their final goodbyes before walking down the isle of the chapel; Aunt Paula and Auntie Erma walked away together with their noses buried too far into their tissues to see him as they rushed on by. They were his two older sisters- the ringleaders of five children; their elderly husbands gave Emmett two solemn nods of acknowledgment before following their ladies out of the thick air of the funeral. Uncle Randy's wife and two daughters bowed their heads as they pranced out, almost as if to hide the bored looks on their faces for the service, followed by a flock of early teens to later twenties cousins he barely recognized. Some went for a small hug, others sufficed with a drawn-out smile and a small phrase.

There were only maybe thirty people in all, still, but it didn't bother Emmett one bit. The less people, the better. Hardly anybody stepped up to help him with Xavier's quickly deteriorating self, and so he expected only him at the funeral. He was the only one who really cared. They would go home, and hug their children and feed their dogs a little extra, but the shock would wear off. They would slip back into their usual selfish routines once the funeral blues melted right off. It was that easy for them. But for Emmett, this was permanent. His father was gone, forever.

"Take it easy, son." Uncle Randy patted his nephew's shoulder roughly, in an act of familial intimacy. "Your dad was a great man, I hope you know that." Emmett nodded, either out of respect or irritation- no one knew and they never would. He didn't wear his heart on his sleeve, nor did he share with anyone his innermost feelings. Well, he had- but that woman was long gone, she was history now. The past, back in California, was where she belonged. "Just… call if you need anything." Emmett nodded, not because he understood one word his tobacco-addicted uncle said, but because he wanted his Uncle Randy's hand off his shoulder and he wanted everyone out of the chapel. He got the hint and exited just as quick as he entered, leaving the room in silence. Emmett stared at his calloused hands for minutes on end before he stood erect, with his beret inside the open groove of his inner arm and his waist- he never wanted to walk down this kind of aisle- sure, he would have died to see Bella walk arm-in-arm with her father down this very isle one day, but he knew that dream was far off and not what he needed to focus on.

Xavier McCartney looked cold and miserable, pushing Emmett to consider stealing the body and burying it himself to get the pain over with. For the both of them. He closed his eyes and clutched the hand of the lifeless corpse before him tightly, as if to tell his dad all of the things he never did. The solitary tear slipped from his left eyelid and danced down his high cheekbone before it drooped down the ridge of his chin; from there, the journey landed spot on Xavier's jacket. "This is the worst goodbye, dad. I'm so sorry I had to tell it to you like this… in your death. I never meant for this, I need you to know that. I never… I was always there for you, and after mom died I just figured… I figured you'd be there for you, and fuck- you weren't. You weren't there for me, I was there for you." There wasn't a hint of bitterness or regret in his voice, only sadness. "Bella used to tell me that God did this to us, only because he thought we could handle it. Can you believe that shit? Like we _deserved _this? Like we deserved to have Mom taken away… like I _deserve _to be a thirty year old orphan?" He shook his head and let a lonely smile take over his face. "But she's always saying stuff like that; it's like she wants to explain everything to me, only to make me feel better. Imagine that, a woman just like your Darla- except, just a little more perfect."

His shoulders shook lightly with the sobbing sounds that just wouldn't come. North Carolina rain pelted down on the paned windows, and he didn't doubt that his freshly-washed Mustang hated the lame turn of weather. "I was with her when you died- well, we were fighting and I was thinking of ways to get back into her good graces, but that's where I was… tell me, was it selfish that I was away from you when you needed me most? I was going to come right back when my mission was over, but the Hum V blew up and I got injured with some of my platoon… and then I saw her. It was one of those rare Southern California rains, and her brother was one of the men that got deployed with me. Bella was broken, and I fixed her. Or at least, I thought I did. I thought that was what I was doing." A nasty expression crossed his features, turning his whole face dark suddenly.

"I left Tyrus to take care of you- he cant even take care of his own dog, how could I have trusted him with you? It was stupid of me, and even though the coroner and the doctors keep saying that you slipped peacefully, and spontaneously in your sleep, I kept thinking that maybe if I had been here… maybe you wouldn't have gone. Did I break your heart, dad? Did I break the final pieces that Mom didn't get to?"

Xavier was mute; he couldn't say anything, even if he wanted to. His soul and every last part of his being was gone, and it would never come back- all of Emmett's questions and outbursts would go unanswered, perhaps for the rest of his life.

**Bella POV-**

"Bella, can you grab the green bean casserole off of the counter?" I heard Rosalie call from the picnic table in the backyard, where Edward was roasting celebratory weenies and Sophie was still "ohhhhing" and "ahhhhing" at her tiny sister. I gave her a silent nod from the kitchen window before snatching it from the island in the room and walking out the back door. I forced a smile when I set the bowl down in front of her. "Thanks." Her bright smile gave me hope- if she could overcome all of the horrible times in her picturesque life, why couldn't I? Why did Emmett leave me? Why did he leave me with that one, horrible phone call? Why hadn't he called back since then, why wasn't I good enough to be that girl for him?

I cleared my throat to push away those hurtful tears I had been dealing with for the past week. In those fourteen days, my life changed in the most drastic way; Rosalie and Edward reconciled differences (in very explicit ways, I could only assume) and in the process, induced Rose's labor by mere weeks, brining little Evie into the world that much sooner. I didn't completely agree with the fact that her name would be Evelyn Marie Cullen and neither did I like it that Cora Rice and Isaac Penn would be her godparents. Sure, it wouldn't be fair that I was Sophie's godmother and also Evie's, but who else could take care of both of them properly? Cora was a wish-washy, anorexic actress starring in the latest school films and Isaac was a grueling Commanding Officer that Edward deemed a best friend only because Emmett was gone and nowhere to be found.

At least Sophie's godfather was family of Rosalie's (a very handsome accountant working in the Southern Californian region) that I got along with; he could be trusted and depended on, but who were these other characters? They were nothing to us, and they would do nothing for Evelyn, either. "Is everything okay, Bella?" Rosalie popped the question so suddenly that I didn't quite have the lie on the tip of my tongue.

"Uh… yeah, why do you ask? I feel fine." I feigned a casual shrug of shoulders and sat down across from her; she lightly pushed on the vibrating bouncer where Evie slept peacefully, keeping a cornering look in her eyes all the while. I ignored the look and set out a game of Rummy for us while Ed finished the sizzling hamburgers. She wasn't getting any answers from me, we weren't even friends anymore. An early dinner was served to all, and with one big bite after another, I finished my burger and set aside my empty plate. I didn't have much of an appetite anymore. Not a lot tasted good anymore; either my taste buds were growing and evolving every meal, or food just didn't have the same luster anymore. I forced Rosalie and her two daughters into the house while I cleared up the table and Edward brushed off his grill. I rolled my eyes- he loved that Foreman as if it was the cure to cancer. I mused a little more about Emmett and Sophia before walking back through the back door and settling in by the sink.

A few minutes later, Edward scooted next to me and offered to take a wet plate from my soapy hands, and I happily obliged by tossing a small teacup towel at his chest. "Brat." He teased lightly but began drying the silverware with the type of precision the Navy locked into him. We stood shoulder to shoulder, in a content silence that only ever abridged by the loud faucet and the clank of dishes; I wasn't too sure why he was helping me, because Sophie usually propped up her tie dye stool and took the wet dishes and Tupperware into her own hands. "How's work?" He popped the question casually, but it felt so organized.

"Work is good. Estes put me back as co-chair and Lead Activities Director, but everyone's till counting on Rosalie coming back." I added a dry chuckle for the effect; it took a few days to get used to Rosalie and Edward back together, and when I prodded for an explanation how, I only got silence. What, did they see one another on opposite sides of the grass field and ran to each other in slow motion, meeting in the middle where harmony sang and the dragonflies danced around their heads happily? Or was it a fiery duel of words and hurt feelings, ending with the searing kiss under colorful fireworks? "What about you?" I didn't want to start acting paranoid, but it felt like we were dancing around a certain subject; maybe it was because Emmett McCartney was always on my mind?

"We got a new shipment of fresh meat coming in next week, and other than a few prickly MP's, my training unit is going smooth on my watch." It was a change from the broken, raw Edward we all knew for the last two months. In no time, he was this bright, happy-go-lucky dude all over again- it was like Rosalie leaving never happened! It was as if we were all just faking it for the drama, and Ed and Rose were the only ones willing to move on with their lives!

"Why are the MPs so prickly?" I was only waiting for him to make this conversation more to the point. Ed was always os direct and the first one to shoot right in, what was wrong with him?

"Jasper went back to work a little sooner than me, and on the last Sunday of Platoon 371, a few of the young fish decided it'd be a big bang if they broke into a few lockers and stole the MP uniform." Edward rolled his eyes, but there was just a hint of mirth in his tone. "Well, if I had been the lead CO on the troop, none of them would have graduated and each one of their asses would have been sent packing, but Jasper is too kind. He has the investigation pending, and the culprit, or _culprits_, will be stripped of their gradutaion credidentials." My mouth was hanging wide open at that.

"And they do know that impersonating a Military Police officer is a federal offense?" I couldn't think of one good reason to do something so _stupid _like that. Who honestly survived Hell Week, only to go fuck off and jeopardize their whole training time like that?

"Counting the charges down, I don't suppose any of them were thinking about the repercussions. Living in the moment, I suppose?" I scoffed at that; ha, only morons and skydivers lived on the seat of their pants. It wasn't worth the risks, and it wasn't worth the heartbreak. Not to me, at least. "Have you talked to Emmett lately?"

My whole body twitched with the effort it took not to breakdown right then and there- I hadn't heard his name out loud in some time, and it felt like a million years dividing us. "Um, no." I decided to play it causal. The last thing I needed was s nosey older brother. "We haven't, actually. Have you heard from him?"

Edward shook his head slowly, as if he were saddened by just the thought of it. I stopped scrubbing the black plate and instead paid my full attention to my brother. What happened? Was he okay? Was there something wrong? What was wrong? I needed to know! "I was really hoping Emmett would have broke the news to you first… but I guess its not something to just comes naturally." Tell me about it, I wanted to add but didn't. instead, I wiped my hands dry and leaned my bum against the sill of the sink and gave him my full attention. "He got a call from one of his friends that was watching over his dad… Bella, his dad passed away a few weeks ago. As soon as he go the message, he left to the airport; I assumed he stopped by to tell you first, but I guess it was an emergency." Edward had a heart, but he was relaying the news so calmly. My heart was beating erratically. Two weeks- he left me in the dark for two weeks, without a word? He was dealing with his last parent's death, all alone? "I really wish Emmett would have been the one to tell you this."

I nodded, only because I understood- tears filled my eyes, and all I could was cover my face and slip to the ground. There was an aching pain I felt for Emmett, a lot like the pain men felt for their wives when they were giving birth. And there was selfish happiness- that returning gleam of hope that said he hadn't left me; it said he was just dealing with something else in life, and he would find me when the time was right. It reassured me that I was not alone, that he was right there with me the entire time. I felt Edward wrap his arms around my heaving shoulders, but it was no use. He wasn't a figure I recognized anymore, and so his comforting would never feel the same again.

"_Little things I should have said or done,_

_I just never took the time._

_But you were always on my mind,_

_Yes, you were always on my mind."_

**A/N: MORE OF AN EXPLANTION NEXT CHAPTER!**

**Gosh, this was sooooooooooo depressing to write. I meant to have this done by Memorial Day (for all of the American fan base out there) for all of the brave soldiers who gave their lives for our freedom, and for the living men that still do!**

**I will always remember my soldier with the fondest memories in my heart! May he rest in peace. REMEMBER- gone but definitely NOT forgotten.**


	17. What Hurts The Most

**A/N: ARTIST OF THE WEEK- **

**Rascal Flatts- "What Hurts The Most". _**

**Emmett POV-**

"Fancy seeing you here." Kris patted my shoulder lightly before grabbing a bar stool beside me and ordered himself a scotch with just a nod of his head; the attentive bartender smiled in an attempt to flirt and went to concoct his want. "Sorry about what happened to the old man. Guess the man upstairs doesn't always do right by choice?" Kris Michaels grew up with me, as our mothers were best friends and we spent too much time together as children. "But hey, fuck it, right? Fuck life sometimes." He muttered the last part, but his image didn't fit with his mouth; he was clean-shaven and put together in a suit, so what was he doing here in Three Boys Bar? This was what he would have thought to be a scum-bucket venue, why was the Millionaire Child here?

"Yeah, something like that." I took another long drink of my draft, trying to give him the message that I didn't want to look at him- when I saw him, I saw my mother, and I saw my father, and I saw a guy that used to be my best friend.

"You know, I went to the funeral. I parked my car down the street and I walked in a few minutes late, just so I wouldn't have to… let you see me." Kris sipped from his new scotch like the primped asshole I knew he was. Who gave a fuck if he attended my dad's funeral? It wasn't going to show in the paper tomorrow, so his lame efforts were useless. Usually, knowing a celebrity or even sharing a sloppy drink with them was supposed to be glamorous and self-fulfilling, but in honesty I couldn't wait for the annoying prick to be on his way. "Cowardly of me, I know. But you were always the adventurous the one, the brave one." Kris chuckled, like we were old pals sharing a few stories. "You became the SEAL, after all." I raised my half-empty glass in mockery before taking another swig. I could see him, from my sideline vision, shake his head and purse his lips; no, I wasn't making any of this easier for him, it shouldn't have been. "Look, I get it. You hate me."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't like the attitude?" I swung my head to be level with his eyes. "Get the fuck on." It was as simple as that. When he left our shitty little North Carolina town, I understood he went to get that better life and golden horizon he always dreamed of, but did he really have to cut all ties? Sure, this town didn't particularly like me nor him, but didn't you at least show enough courtesy to phone your best friend and let him know you're still alive?

"You see, Emmett, I'm in a little bit of a pickle. I've already booked the hotel for the week. Wouldn't wanna waste a sweet room, am I right?" Kris had never been cheap, he spent money like it was fast going out of style! And he had enough money to own a hotel, what did one room for seven days make him? "Plus I paid in advance. You know these small town spots, they always want the money upfront." He shook his blond head before finishing off his scotch; he promptly ordered another before turning back to me. "Mom says you weren't in town when Mr. McCartney croaked, and that you hadn't been for awhile." I tightened my jaw against all of the horrible things I wanted to say to him.

"You of all people should know how irritating it is for others to know your every move." Kris was a jet-setting photographer, whom was too eager to start his business with models and magazines, that he saw none of the particles behind him that helped make up his past. Who knew someone was capable of making millions by taking pictures? "I was in Coronado, another base on the West Coast."

Kris nodded, much thought apparent on his face. "I thought you were settled here in Jacksonville? Mom said your stop-loss days were over, Emmett." I shot up and threw my beer down on the floor, daring him with my eyes. Is this what he wanted, to push me and see how far I would go? "Oh, jump off your high horse, man. I'm just trying to understand what could have possibly got your attention in San Diego. What was over there that wasn't here, Emmett?"

"What the fuck are you getting at, Kris? Why are you trying to pull mind games on me?" I clenched my jaw against the pain and betrayal I felt for myself; for one girl, I left my sickly father and chased tail. What kind of son did that make me? "I was in San Diego after a mission went horribly wrong, alright? I was recuperating in California, and tried to make some time for myself without all of these loud-mouth small-towners here, okay, Kris? Is that explanation good enough for you?" I slammed a twenty dollar bill on the marble bar counter before walking away with the last thread of dignity I had left. Even Kris, whom had been gone for the last few years, knew about my life and circumstances. It was one thing I hated about my childhood town of North Carolina- everybody knew your business. Before I could get out of the door, I felt Kris snatch my arm and pulled me back to him.

My chest was heaving up and down, I wanted to rip his head off. "So where does Isabella Swan fit into the story?" At the mention of my ex-girlfriend's name, I swung at him, connecting my fist with his glass jaw immediately. He had no right to bring her into this! Kris rushed me and we crashed into a few wooden chairs, knocking everything off of the walls and ripping the sexy bikini-clad beer sponsor posters around the small bar. I swung and connected some more, while he shoved at me and defended every single hit I threw at him. My father taught the both of us our self-defense skills, but I was enhanced by the Marine Corp. Kris simply knew how to not get mugged in a big city.

**Bella POV-**

"You need to breathe, Bella, that's all." Alice said simply as she fiddled with her vase of water lilies, smiling down at them and whispering consoling words. "You know, they say that if you sing and read to a flower, it's proven to grow faster and more beautiful than if you had left it alone and treated it like nothing?" I was still weeping silently at her bar stool in the kitchen of Jasper's on base, cookie-cutter home. "I guess a flower is a lot like love; if you leave it be and only nurture it with the average care, it grows slowly… and good enough." Her small shoulders squared when she pulled out her purse and fingered through her wallet. "But if you pay special attention and really work at it, your love is colorful and moves so fast through your blood, you sometimes can't remember it's there." It was weird; when I slept at night, it was like I could feel Emmett right there with me. It was like he manifested himself within me, like there was no pushing him out of my body no matter how hard I tried.

"This hurts so bad, Alice." I cried some more, just because I couldn't find the right words to explain the turmoil I found myself in. Relationships didn't happen for me when I was younger, and he was my very first serious commitment to love. Did I love him? I was sure I did, but I wasn't sure what true love really felt like. So, how would I know if this was real? "I just want the pain to go away." Alice didn't look up at me from her simple swelling, just continued to snip away dead flowers and dropped a few aspirin in the clean water. "How do I make it go away?" She lived with immense pain on her part, but she was just fine- how could I do that? How did I act like Alice? Her blue eyes regarded me with a strange look, and we were a safe distance from another. Times like these, I couldn't stand comforting hugs and sympathetic looks; sure, people's intentions were good and most of their hearts were in the right place, but every touch and facial expression reminded that Emmett wasn't here only because he didn't want to be. "Oh, god…" I murmured softly into my fist. What came next? What was there to enjoy when I felt like shit without him?

Alice acknowledged me softly with her hands folded on top of the counter. "Would you like to accompany me to Chamberlains this afternoon?" My body grew rigid at the mention of Chamberlains- this was only the second time she had ever invited me to go with her to the sunny graveyard an hour from here. Jasper made it clear that she never took people with her there, but I could only assume it was because she didn't want to interfere with another's schedule. But what if it actually meant something to her that I go? I didn't see how accompanying her would make anything better, but it couldn't hurt. Perhaps this would be a good thing for me, to see that my situation could be worse. I accepted her proposal, and after she left out a meal for her two small kittens, we took the scenic drive. The closer we got to Chamberlains Cemetery, the more nervous I grew. Gravestones and death weren't my thing even if I had accompanied my father to many burial ceremonies for police officers laid to rest when I was younger; experience didn't always make things better. The more funerals I attended, the more my imagination would wonder.

When would the zombie hand reach out and grip my ankle? Was stepping on the grass of a gravestone a sin, like walking all over a sleeping person? If that was so, why did graveyards bury everyone so close together? Did anyone actually respect common privacy anymore? "Right down here." She said simply before walking off with a few stemmed lilies in her hands. If I had been wearing the high heels she wore, I would have ran down the row of people six feet under; gosh, just the way her heels seeped into the wet grass made my skin crawl. I all but rushed behind her, trying to ignore the listless names and dates I was faced with. All of the gravestones were the same cut, same word font, and same style. This was a military cemetery, I knew that, but where was the variety? Sure, Naval Officers and any other soldier looked the same, but they had their differences, didn't they? We were human, we born to be different.

"This is Eric." Alice stopped abruptly in front of a small headstone planted in the ground and went to her knees, as if in a prayer. "We used to fight constantly, my mom could hardly ever tear us apart." Her grim smile covered her impressive, little heart-shaped face. "I remember my aunties used to chastise my mom for playing favorites between my brother and I, but I never cared much that she loved Eric more." Alice grew teary-eyed, but there was nothing I could do. While I missed Emmett every single day, she would deal with pain for the rest of her life. I sat down beside her, ignoring the dampness of the ground seeping through my jeans. "Eric hated it, but what could he do? He was perfect- he brought our high school's the Valley Championship every year, his grades were always higher than mine, and he even dressed better than me. It was just undeniable how golden of a child he was." I wanted to take all of her pain away, but just didn't know how. "And when he joined the Marines…" wait, he joined the Marines? I thought he was in the Navy? I mean, she never talked about her deceased brother and father, but I just assumed that her male childhood figures sent her in the direction of a Navy man. How had I known Alice for this long and not known that fact about her life?

Eric was a Marine. "It went against the grain of our household; my dad had been an officer in the Navy and since my brother was so fitting to our parents' needs, it was assumed he would follow in the footsteps. But he was willing to disappoint." She chuckled bitterly and played with the leather strap of her small purse. "Stupid, stupid Eric. Once he graduated high school and lived on his own, he was always doing things to upset my parents and our neighborhood. He played loud music all night, talked to the… wrong kind of girls," her tone was mischievous, "and then the Marines. We were in Virginia at the time, and Eric was sent all the way to California for basic training. I didn't hear from him a whole lot, and it wasn't like I could fly to where he was. I was five years younger than him. I can still remember our last Christmas, he was so… oh, I'm sorry, Bella! I really don't mean to bore you-"

"No, no. Go ahead, I like hearing about your life. It has much more flavor than mine." I laughed easily, realizing that this was just what my sore heart needed.

"Oh, well, alright then. Where was I? Oh, Christmas!" She kept on without my goading. "He bought me a car for my fifteenth birthday, which was a few days before Christmas eve. He taught me how to drive, we nearly crashed into a cop car on my first ride." It was comical, imagining what a tiny Alice looked like behind the wheel on her very first driving lesson. I hoped there wasn't too much property damaged. "Eric gave me the keys before he left back to his base in North Carolina, but made me promise that I wouldn't drive very far before I got my license." Her little chest rumbled with private giggles. "I took that little Honda Civic everywhere! To the local bonfires, to concerts in neighboring cities with friends, everywhere… my mom and dad didn't like it all, but they were always too busy with their own lives, I was sort of pushed to the side."

I gulped, feeling my throat tighten with the direction her words were going. "Do you know how that feels, Bella? To be pushed aside for something more important?"

A tear slipped from my wet eyelashes. "Yeah, I do." My dad was as unfeeling as they came, and my mom was never there for me when I needed her. Emotions were so alien to me, and the softness of Emmett's touch was what I missed the most right now. "My mom and dad divorced when I was really young, and my dad's work always got the best of him. And Emmett… is in just as bad of shape as me. Alice, what happened to Ben?" I didn't want to relive my darkest moments, and I didn't want any of my old skeletons to come out and play at the moment. I wanted to hear her brother's story, the entire version.

Her pretty blue irises clouded with a dark emotion I knew as destruction. "That was the last time I would ever see my brother. Eric was deployed to Afghanistan a few weeks later, and from what the Marine Corp was allowed to us, his death was instant. Something about a surprise bomb attack, I'm not sure what was truth and what was not." Alice gnawed on her lower lip, but the sobs still spilled out like a painful siren. "The next few months were painful, and the next few years were even harder." She plopped on her bum, forgetting that she was in a white dress and the green grass was wet. Alice bent her knees and brought them to her. This was raw pain- pain that I was making her relive in the cruelest of ways. "I loved him so much, Bella, he was my only sibling. We competed harshly, but we loved one another even more fiercely." She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "And that wasn't what hurt the most."

"What hurt the most?" I inquired, not being able to deal with the suspense that her tragedy put me under. Tears of my own spilled quietly, as I began to feel every crumbling sensation of heartache she was feeling. It was like she transferred some emotional wave unto me, and in the rare occasion, I started to feel something. I started to feel pain, the real deal, and I started to hate myself for everything I did to Emmett and my parents. I hated that I shut everyone out, and I hated how stubborn I was. I hated it all.

"October the fourth." Her chin wrinkled with the energy she was trying to use to quit the tears and emotional breakdown, and her mouth wobbled with every wet word. "It was the only day that reminded me he was really gone- it reminded me what he was capable of, and what I was not." What that his death date? A birthday? A special mourning day she set aside for him? "Every time, I was one year older- I would come and visit this very gravestone on his birthday, but I was the only one living, and I was the only one celebrating. I would be one year older, but he was… so untouchable. Like porcelain." She smiled softly. "And it just makes me think of what could have been. Success was inevitable for him, you have to understand, Bella. Only great things happened for Eric Masen. But then death bestowed his graces, and it changed everything." She wiped at her face gingerly as I held one of her hands tight in my own. "He was gone, just like that. My parents identified his body, what was left of it, we laid him to rest in this specific cemetery, as he requested. And now I come here every chance I get. Sometimes I talk to him, sometimes I just sit here and listen to the sounds of the world around me. But it's always the same- it's always the same agony when I get up to leave."

"What of your dad?" She spent very little time talking about him, but I knew she loved him to pieces. She had pictures of him and his plaques everywhere in her house.

Alice spared me an even look. "He died two years after my brother. They said it was a freak accident on base, with one of the military vehicles, but it was more than that." She rested her chin on her kneecaps. "My father had a broken heart, and that's what he died of. His life went in slow motion, nothing mattered to him after Eric- my grandpapa lived with us then, and he explained to my seventeen year old self how matters of the heart worked. He said they did what they wanted, and if they wanted you dead, it was done." I didn't see the instant connection between her father dying in an accident and his broken heart, but I believed her. If she said that was his prognosis of death, that was what it was. "Grandpapa clarified how much my dad loved Eric, and how Eric took every last drop of life left within him in his death. It made a lot of sense to me then, but so much now. Now, I see what my father's death for what it was- an accident, purely an accident with no rhyme or reason. Do you wanna know something?"

I was a mess of tears, but I nodded through the fresh hurt she laid upon me. "I wish with all of my might that I never realized the truth, because the nasty truth hurts the most, Bella." I nodded in agreement; the truth did hurt, but it was the only thing certain. "I liked so much to think that my dad died for a reason- and Eric was more than reason enough." I had no consoling gestures to make, and we just sat there with the birds chirping and the wind singing around us. She sniffled and caressed Eric's headstone before laying her yellow flowers around in a huffy manner. "Please don't make my mistake, Bella. Go to Emmett, don't wait for him to come visit. I waited for Eric every time, I never took the prerogative to visit him. I regret it everyday; don't live with a regret that you know you'll never forgive yourself for."

I nodded. She was absolutely right.

**A/N: I had better not be the only one to cry for this chapter, I poured my heart and soul out for this piece. Poor Alice, god- I feel her pain.**

"**Don't live with a regret that you know you'll never forgive yourself for." -Alice Masen Whitlock, STT (Somebody To Thrill)**


	18. Heartbreak Warfare

**Emmett POV-**

For some reason, my feet told me to walk to Jacksonville International Airport, so I went there. I waited for almost an hour on end before a shorter woman walked past me and out of the automatic sliding doors. "Wait!" I called to her, and she immediately turned around. "Uh…" What had I stopped her for in the first place? I guess I just found it odd that there weren't many people here, given that it was almost midnight, and she was the first non-employee to be seen. "Do you have the time, M'am?" I understood that some people off the street found me unapproachable, just because of my size and voice, but this lady seemed so unaffected by my presence, it was eerie.

Damn, I couldn't even scare old ladies these days.

She put her carry-on down and walked up to me with such ease and grace, perhaps she had been a dancer once, long ago? The banana and cherry print on her oversized shirt reminded me of a nightgown Sophie hated to wear- but Bella loved the way the fabric looked on her niece. That memory gave me a wide smile, whether or not it was the easiest thing to remember. Bella and Sophie were the two most influential women in my life, besides my angel of a mother, and so I could never think ill of them. Even if it meant that I would have to remember them from across the United States, this was the way life currently was. It wasn't like I could just hop on an airplane, land back in California, knock on Bella's door and ask for her undying love and unwavering forgiveness, could I? I fucked things up in a major way with Isabella, I now understood that, and I needed a lot of time and space to figure out how I was going to solve everything. That is, if I even thought things could be saved anymore.

The old lady came so close to me that she was completely violating my personal space, but there was no way I would say anything to her, she was a grandma's age.

"It's not too late." She patted my hand lovingly before turning around and going about her business, as if that was what she said to everyone. But I felt her speak right into me, and that wasn't the kind of feeling you could shake off. After rubbing my face quite roughly and sighing deeply, I made my way towards the door, feeling completely useless for even wasting my night away by wandering around my beloved city. Where was my mind these days, anyway? I needed to start looking for a job, I needed to turn in a formal resignation letter to Edward, my best friend and fellow Commanding Officer at Coronado, and I needed to start cleaning out my parents old house. There was so much to be done, yet here I was- miles from home, on foot.

"You're insane." I muttered to myself before heading right for the same double doors as the elderly lady before me. A voice stopped me- a voice so frantic and nervous and scared, that I froze in my steps and waited as the juices in my brains flowed faster, recognizing the tone right off.

"Emmett! Oh my god, Emmett, its you! Its you, you're here!" Bella came rushing towards me and I turned around to catch her as she more tumbled than flew into my arms- she left her bags unattended far behind her. My heart raced so fast that it almost felt it wasn't beating at all, if that made any sense in real life. "Great god, I never thought I'd miss you so much! But then I was talking to Alice and I suddenly realized that all of the stupid anger and misunderstandings we might have had were so _stupid _and useless!" Isabella rambled off a million miles a minute, holding my face in her hands all the while. I wanted to start explaining myself, but then again her voice was just too heavenly to shush. "I love you, I love you, I love you!" She crying madly into me, and I felt so strongly connected to her in that movement. "I've loved you since the first day I met you, you know that! I've never stopped, I promise that! Now we can be together, forever, and there's nothing that stands in the way to stop us. Emmett?" Her tone grew too soft for my liking as she searched my face. "oh… were you? Were you… waiting for someone else?"

The raw fear inside of her brown opals drove me to smash my mouth right against hers in a rough, passionate lock of lips. I put everything into this kiss- this was me letting it all hang out. By trying to steal the pain away from her sweet lips, I ended up sending her some of my own. Bella's hands roamed over my face and arms as we fought for dominance in the kiss, but hey- I liked her fierce and unforgiving like this. "Bella, the animal." I broke off the embrace with this phrase. "I love you so much." She laughed loudly against me, causing a small rumble in my chest. Who knew I would ever miss someone's laughter? These things seemed so common until you didn't have them anymore, and when they were scarce, it was like those tiny moments were the only things that meant anything anymore. "I missed you laughing." I blurted without thinking.

Bella seemed unaffected by the creepiness of that statement. "I missed everything about you." She kissed my once before suddenly looking around her, as if she was waiting for a crowd of people to start booing us for showing so much public affection. "Wow, well good thing it isn't packed tonight. I've never made out like that in a public airport before." She blushed a deep, dark red color. I consoled her inflated ego and helped her with her bags before she started speaking again. "I just wanted to see you again- I mean, I'm not sure what I really expected to happen. I don't even know how I planned on tracking you down." Bella began to shake her head as we walked hand-in-hand, me carrying her backup and dragging her rollaway suitcase.

"That is true, Bella, how did you plan on finding me?" Of course, that wasn't the very first thought that went through my head, but it was perhaps the third or fourth. What were the odds that she touch down in North Carolina at the same time that I aimlessly walked to the airport? It seemed like one of those unrealistic, unbelievable scenes from a Nicholas Spark's book-adaptation movie. I guess that I was learning that with love, sometimes you couldn't question it.

I kissed the back of her hand as she looked over at me, the stars in her eyes. "Oh, I don't know." And it wasn't like Isabella Swan at _all _to not know what she was doing, and especially not when she didn't have her older brother Edward around. She was always the woman with a plan, never this spontaneous human being in front of me. "I guess…" Another point, Bella never guessed at things in her life, "I just figured you'd find me." The bright grin on her face was so contagious that even I caught it. "And you did."

I swallowed the lump that started to develop in my throat at her sure statement. Just an hour ago, after I parted ways on such bad terms with Kris Michaels, an old friend of mine, I was so certain that life was one unforgivable blob of shit. "I'll always find you, Bella." We stopped walking as I said this, and the intensity of the moment grew as we stepped closer. Her eyes were on my lips and I couldn't break my gaze for the life of me. When she looked up at me from her thick black eyelashes, my lower body could barely contain itself- she knew how to set me on fire like no other bitch in my life ever could. Even when I was a teen and had an insatiable appetite for the female kind, I never felt this way. She was innocent, lovely, sexy, _thrilling_.

"Promise me forever, Emmett." She said almost cryptically.

"What do you mean? Forever is a feeling, Bella, not a measurement that runs out. And we already told each other forever began when we met." I was so confused. We had an hour conversation back in San Diego about the term "forever" and while we both told each other we never expected the small relationship we had to last that long, we promised to keep the feeling alive. Even if we didn't end up together until our dying day, we'd remember all of the good we had.

"No, Emmett! I mean…" Bella trailed off as she began to fidget with the friendship bracelet Sophia and I spent so much time making, "promise that we will always find each other- no matter where we are. We need to promise that we'll find one another, _forever_." She emphasized the word, speaking as though this moment was already gone.

"Okay." I nodded, as if to say _"fair enough"_ and held her heart-shaped face in my large hands. "I promise you that I will always find you, wherever you are, _forever_." Bella smiled and sighed happily, perfectly content with my new answer. "Now, c'mon, lets get to my house before we freeze to death. It's going to start raining sometime soon."

We arrived at my house sooner than I expected, but the lack of luster and heating in the place made me suddenly angry. Bella pulled all stops to make sure that my stay in her brother's house was as comfortable as possible, I wanted to send that favor back to her! "What's wrong?" She asked cautiously, noticing my apparent irritation. "Is it because of the heater?" Isabella was so perceptive sometimes, it never ceased to maze me. "Don't worry, that just means we _have _to cuddle tonight." My girlfriend could make anything sound nice and fluffy, really. It was sometime in the middle of the night, right after we finished making love for the second time, that Isabella stirred in my arms. "Emmett, what's your favorite song? Like, in the whole entire world?"

That question caught me off guard. Why would she want to know something like that? "Uh, I don't actually know. I have to think it over. What's yours?" To Bella, things were black or white, yes or no, etc. She had life figured out and things went according to plan, so it was no surprise that her response was on the tip of her tongue.

"American Pie by Don Mclean. I sang it to Sophie all the time when she was younger, just to put her to sleep when Rosalie was too frustrated with her. When she got older, the song just stuck and she fell in love with it. So whenever I hear it now, it takes me back to some of the best moments of my life." That was a beautiful thing to say- for regular families, an aunt saw her nieces and nephews around Christmas or their birthdays, but Bella was there for Sophie all of the time. I saw Bella as more of her mom than Rosalie could ever dream to be. "Hurry up, Emmett, what's your favorite song?" Even though I cherished every peaceful silence and moments of nothing that lapsed between us, I still felt as though Bella was in a rush to get nowhere. It was as if she knew there was some invisible warranty on our time together.

My mind filtered through all of the songs I loved to play on repeat while exercising, working, and showering… my favored genres went from Motown to soft alternative to hardcore rock, but there was always that one song that I remembered. It wasn't on my iPod and nor had I heard it in over a decade, but it had the most meaning. "Venus by Frankie Avalon." I could physically feel the shock radiating off her as she turned around in bed and faced me full on. "What? You think I've never heard music before Nirvana released their album?" I teased softly and kissed her plump lips in multiple intervals.

Isabella stared at me, or right through me, and smiled once more. "Frankie Avalon, really? I didn't even think you knew him, he was from the fifties." She let out a small chuckle before she leaned into me and rested her forehead against mine. "Why that song?"

I shrugged with a sly little grin. "He's singing about the goddess of love Venus, asking her to send him a beautiful little woman. A lot like my life, if you consider it closely." She rolled her eyes comically.

"Sing your favorite part to me." Isabella demanded softly, and who just exactly was I to deny her anything at this point? She hopped her ass on a plane to a far away place she'd never seen before, just to take the chance of not even meeting me at all. Even though I hated singing, I would do this for her.

"_Venus if you will, Send a little girl for me to thrill. A girl who wants my kisses and my arms, with all the charms of you… hey, Venus, oh Venus_." I expected Bella to run off laughing at the disgusting way my deep voice tried to even mildly resemble Frankie Avalon, but instead she only hummed along with me. "Did you like it?" I only meant it as a joke, but instead she nodded adamantly.

"I love it! It was sweet, and very sensitive, Emmett. I was expecting some Skillet or Kiss or Radiohead, honestly. It was a big surprise, a lovely one at that." She kissed my forehead before kissing my lips, and turned back around to scoot her butt closer to my body for warmth once more. "Well, you sure do have **somebody to thrill** now, don't you?" Bella added. **[Now you know why I entitled this story "Somebody To Thrill".]**

I laughed heartily and wrapped my arms around her before nuzzling my nose in her throat. "I only had to wait thirty years." And with that, we shared a few more minutes of jibes and laughter… and the night just waned on, like the insistent flickering of a candlelight. It started off bold and bright and seemed to rescue all life, and when we drew closer to sleep with lights out, all boldness went away. Now, it was just us. The regular, average Emmett and Bella with no surprises or revelations or spontaneous acts of love. We had thrilled one another just as we wished, and now it was time for sleep.

**A/N:**

**ONLY THREE CHAPTERS LEFT. **

**HOW DOES THIS END?**

**The truth might just break your heart.**


	19. We've Got 100 Years

_Let's look through the glass_

_We'll see all of the things_

_We could never before._

_Stare long and hard, doll-_

_It's the last thing we_

_Will ever see together._

_-Darla McCartney, 1983_

**A/N: **

**LONG UPDATE.**

**ARE YOU READY FOR THE TRUTH?**

**Bella POV- **

I idly flipped through the gossip tabloids as I habitually did when paying for my groceries, always expecting the million different celebrity interviews and wild rumors, but all of the magazines had a similar cover. _Kris Michaels, "Archie" from blockbuster movie "Sophia And Beyond" and President & founder of Kris Micheals' Photography, found dead in New York City hotel room._ My eyes watered substantially, seeing as "Sophia And Beyond" was one of my favorite movies of all time; who didn't fall in love with two brilliant, star-crossed lovers in a two and a half hour movie filled with laughter and true love? One hand covered my chest as I flipped it open and swiped the glossy pages until finding the six-page spread, explaining every single gruesome detail of his life. Edward hated this movie because he thought it was too unrealistic that two people could actually end up together, and be happy all the while. What could I say about my husband? He was your average, tough-guy Navy SEAL and that's all there was to it these days. _Kris Michaels' shocking death by overdose is sweeping the nation, and along with the passing of such a beloved celebrity, there are too many rumors to properly count. "There is ridiculous talk of an illegitimate child, that's just too inappropriate for words." Says ex-wife Beatrice Ballot-Michaels. Also, a rumor that none of Kris Michaels' estate in New York and his hometown of Jacksonville, North Carolina, will be passed down to his divorced wife. As to where his money is going, still unknown…_

"M'am!" The young boy at the cash register called to me angrily. I snapped out of my reading and put the magazine down before turning to him, realizing all of my items had been checked out and bagged already. "35.42." Was his equally bored reply. I pulled the money from my wallet and waved him off when he went to get my change, I instead grabbed my brown paper bags and walked as if in a zombie trance to my silver car. Funny how a stranger's misfortune can make you rethink your whole entire life, and the misdirection that you can suddenly see so clear. With Edward currently deployed, I didn't have anyone to stay warm with at night. I guess I almost envied my friends that I lived on base with; sure, their husbands were gone for intervals of six to ten months, but at least they would return for two to three weeks straight! My husband could be laying with me one moment and then the next he was being sent on missions for weeks on end. Being a SEAL really put an unnecessary strain on our _already _strained military relationship.

Our beautiful two story house with the white picket fence and brown door greeted me as I pulled in the driveway, along with another tiny little Beamer that I instantly recognized. I sighed a breath of relief, at least there was someone I could talk to today! I grabbed my belongings and rushed into the house with a somber expression, hoping beyond hope that she was in a better state than I was. Surely enough, Alice was standing with a bright smile beside the kitchen counter, a plate of food in her hands. "Well, hello there." There really wasn't a need to lock your doors around here, so I understood how she got in so easily. I tossed my groceries to the side and ravished the plate of food she made for me. Alice was the strongest little woman I had ever met, and she would always be that way.

"Hey." She replied back, already starting to put away my groceries. "Have you received anything yet?" Alice asked with her back to me. I was happy for that- she didn't need to see my crestfallen face at her imposing question. I understood that she was constantly paranoid when our men were out to war, because there was always that chance that they weren't coming back.

"No." I replied quietly and finished my plate up. "But I'm sure its just because of protocol. You know how our guys are- never one to break rules." I tried to make my conversation light, just to give her back that easy smile she once had.

"Easy for you to say, Bella, your husband is the Commanding Officer." Alice teased back at me. I rolled my eyes, Navy wives constantly threw that in my face, as if that made things any easier for me. I never got the special, secret call or the letter that they all assumed I did.

"Yeah, I guess so." My eyes left hers and roamed around the room, spotting a glass cabinet filled with photo frames. There were some of Edward and I kissing, and then there some of all of us friends hanging out. Alice and Jasper really were our best friends here in San Diego, but aside from them we knew another couple that rivaled siblings- they were our other half, so alike us in so many ways. Alice followed the direction of my gaze and walked to the photo shelf herself, picking up the one picture frame that I was trying my hardest to not look at. It was the six of us all in front of Three Guys Bar in North Carolina, smiling like drunken fools and posing for the camera. Jasper and Alice were hugging one another tight enough to become one, Edward and I gave funny faces with our hands entwined, and then there was Emmett and Rosalie… they were caught up in one crazy lip lock, two very bright smiles apparent.

Alice ran her hand over the picture. "They really were in deep love, weren't they?" She pointed out Rose and Em, making a show of flashing the picture for my eyes once more. For one, Edward and Rosalie were sister and brother. Secondly, Edward and Emmett met one another at Basic Training when they were only 18 or 19 years old. Thirdly, they completed SEAL training together years later. And fourthly… when we first met, I was irrevocably in love with Emmett McCartney. "Bless his heart." I nodded to her statement, Emmett lived life in the wildest, most intense of ways. Moments seemed to fly when you were in his company, and I didn't say that just because I had an old infatuation with the man. His attitude and just natural aura drew you in, and his personality was just so contagious, it was hard to not laugh in his presence. Edward was a better man when Emmett was around. "You know, I love your husband, Edward is a good man." She started out cautiously.

"He sure is." I wasn't too sure how to reply to something as flimsy as that starting statement. Just where was she going with that?

"But…" Ali smiled somewhat wickedly as she turned over the picture a few times in her hands, "Emmett will always be your first love." My eyes became wide, brown saucers when those words left her lips- she knew not to say things like that these days. I was married now, had been for almost six years now. Emmett was just this missing piece of chocolate out of the box, he didn't have any real anchor in my life when it came down to it. "Humor me for a moment, Bella- had Emmett chose you and not Edward's sister… how different things might have been?" That sentence called lots of serious moisture to my eyes; I didn't want to think like that, it reminded that I did in fact have many regrets. I was almost thirty years old, for Christ's sake!

"Alice." I shook my head slowly. "Don't think like that, I don't." There was a time in my younger life where we were all single, but tied together by loose friendships. Alice and I were roommates our first year of college, she was dating this young dude named Jasper Whitlock, and one day we stumbled upon this lost looking blonde bombshell right on the brink of becoming woman. That day changed all of our lives- Ali married Jasper within months and moved on base with him, I was introduced to Emmett McCartney and Edward Cullen by Rosalie, and I taught Rose everything she needed to know about being a woman. In the beginning, I felt such a strong pull to Emmett, but if I was being completely honest, he didn't see me at all. Once Rose was able to squeeze into cut off jean shorts and white tank tops, I began to slowly fade away from his vision. Edward asked me out when I made it clear that I chose to hate Emmett's being with all of my heart, and we never found anything more than each other.

"Oh, c'mon, Bella! I know you don't regret being with Edward, he's a great person- but it causes no harm to think about your past and consider all of the things that did happen, and then the things that _didn't_." Rose and Emmett were married as soon as she turned nineteen, about a year into our joint friendships. The only way to live on base with a military man is to marry him, and at that time, those two couldn't get enough of each other. It wasn't until their actual wedding day that I realized a huge milestone in my life had come and gone just like that; I was in the ladies restroom of City Hall, where they were going to tie the not in the matter of minutes, and I cried my eyes out for moments on end. She was getting the boy I had always wanted, and she didn't give a shit how that made me feel. Rosalie was a sweet girl when she wanted to be, but she was selfish beyond measurement for the rest of the time.

I shrugged again. "But then again, things worked in my favor. We all got what we wanted, right?" Edward didn't actually marry me until years later, when he "was absolutely ready for that step", as if he planned on spending the rest of life with so many other female candidates. None of us were exactly how or when it happened, but we all drifted slowly apart from another. Alice and Jasper were in Japan for a year or so, Edward became a Commanding Officer and later accepted an Instructor position here on Coronado base, and Emmett and Rosalie… their fate came so much sooner than any of us could have predicted.

Alice came around the marble island and propped her elbows against the countertop before staring at me right in my eyes. "After all, yes." Her soft smile made me melt right into her- the tears came slowly, those treacherous things! I didn't like to admit that my life now was not anything I ever planned for myself. "Shh, Bella, I'm so sorry I brought all of this up." She fretted over me and brought me toilette paper so that I could clear away the snot and excess of water drops on my face. I knew she only meant well by bringing up old shit, but it just didn't help at this time and place. "So sorry." She swallowed nervously and rubbed the shoulder of my sweater as I hiccupped and sobbed into my closed fist.

"Its…" I tried to calm myself down enough to speak clearly, "its alright. Its not like…" again, my tears ran cold down my face and I leaned into her, "I haven't thought about these things myself. Its just that- well," I stupid gestured around me. "I have this big, beautiful house and Edward owns part of his family's summer home in Valencia now, and I finally finished my degree in Child Development, and I have more shoes than I know what to do with!" Those all sounded like great things, I knew that, but it just didn't feel right. "When Edward's home, everything is fine because he convinces us both that _this _is the way people feel when they've been in love for so long. But when he's gone… all I can think is that I should have loved Emmett instead." As those words I had been thinking for the last nine years of my life were for the first time said aloud, an unexpected reaction surfaced. The tears seemed to suddenly dry up and the ferocious knot that was in my throat just moments ago was now gone. I could breathe normally again. "But Edward's here on Earth with me," Alice's electric blue eyes shot away from mine, as she understood just where I was leading with that- none of us liked to say it, but god damn it, it was the truth! "and Emmett's gone."

**Emmett POV-**

My eyes shot open, as wide as they had ever been, as I felt at the side of my bed. It was rumpled, as though Bella had been tossing and turning all night but as I pulled her pillow to me, her strawberry scent was completely gone. I was slightly put off but turned on my side, waiting for her to return to bed from wherever she was. After a few extra minutes than I liked, I finally shot out of bed and ignored the painful rays of sunlight that flittered through the dusty blinds and open windows. What was up with this weather lately? The night before had been a storm of the years, and we awake to bright and sunny skies? I smiled at the thought that Bella brought the sunshine from California; she sure was something akin to sunshine for me. "Bella?" I called out lazily, padding through my bedroom in nothing but pajama bottoms. I checked my en suite bathroom before traveling downstairs going through every last door, space, and cupboard before taking to tapping my fingers insistently. "This isn't funny, Bella, come out already." The old rickety house wasn't all that big, she couldn't have gone far anyway. I knew her, Bella didn't like to travel very far for anything, especially when she was in a bran new town. _But hey_, I inwardly thought, _she hopped on an airplane and came all the way across the country last night didn't she?_ The grin returned to my face as I settled in a high-arched kitchen stool and patiently waited for her to come walking through the door.

I considered making us something for breakfast, but what if that was where she had gone to? I didn't want to do anything to step on her toes or ruin the perfect mood we were in since yesterday, it was just too soon to do crappy shit like that. On a whim, I decided to go upstairs and find her luggage; wouldn't it just put a smile on her face to return back home and see that all of her things would be put away in different places, as if she had lived here with me all along? I grinned enormously as I went to pull her colored suit cases from under my uniform hung in the closet, but when I got there I received the shock of my life. They were… _gone_. "What the fuck?" I muttered aloud, running a hand through my hair madly. Where did they up and run off to? I checked under my bed and throughput the two bedroom house, just as I did when looking for the owner. What the hell was going on?

Then a million traitorous thoughts raced through my head like rats in a sewer pipe_. Maybe she left you. Maybe you just weren't what she was looking for after all. She probably ran scared as soon as you feel into a deep sleep… think about it, Emmett, you started talking about a family and marriage and giving her your last name! You did it, dumb fuck, you drove her away! Not to mention the fact that you have the ugliest fucking house on the street, and maybe she realized just how pathetic your existence was?_ "Stop!" I finally screamed and suddenly it felt like the room was spinning, as if the house was on an axis and the wind was blowing it in different directions.

I walked forward to get downstairs where I could get a drink of cool water and clear my head, but I as I directed my usually faultless feet towards the door, I fell over and landed with my head smacking into the cherry wood board at the end of my bed with a loud 'thud'. Was I going insane or something? Was this a sign of Shellshock? I prayed Bella wasn't around for real, I didn't want her to see me all pathetic and loony like this! I tried to get up again but fell numerous of times before finally making my way down the stairs; I felt almost thrown down the last two steps and I ungracefully laid splattered along the hardwood floor of my living room. The house seemed suddenly too small for words- the shapes and sizes of the furniture and ceilings of my home came in and out of focus, making me feel as though I had been in a circus tent or something.

"What's happening to me?" The words came pouring from my mouth in a hoarse cry. I was a grown man and Navy Seal to boot, but even this scared the holy shit out of me. Did I accidentally take some kind of physocsymatic drug, or swallow a bottle of toxic waste? I was tripping the fuck out and there was no escaping this.

"You're dying again, Emmett." The soft words of serenity I once knew so keen to ear spoke to me as nonchalantly as the wind carried messages to the sun; I turned around sharply and sought out her voice, the sweet melody that it was. Suddenly an ill sensation overtook my body, and bile arose in my threat, where there was already a forming lump from my almost-breakdown just seconds ago. I started gagging uncontrollably, fighting back the urge to actually vomit all over the place. "Let it, son, don't fight it so hard." My mother's voice came back into focus, and I saw her standing there.

Dressed in white satin with her hands folded in a calm gesture right above her navel, she looked every inch the holy angel I thought she was. Everyone thought of Darla McCartney as an angel from heaven, even before she died! "Mom?" I called out weakly, glad to have the vomiting sensation gone, but started to feel all of my prior morning energy being drained from my body. Feeling too sick and tired for my own good, I held onto the arm of a smaller loveseat and slipped towards the carpeted floor of the sitting room- I couldn't even find the strength to make it to my own mother, whom was one of the most important people in my life. This was obviously a dream, or maybe some kind of lucid nightmare? Either way, I just wanted to wake up already! "Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up…" I chanted over and over again, starting to feel even more crazy when my chest and body began to make a rocking sensation.

"Emmie, this isn't a dream." Darla called sweetly to her only son, but I couldn't hear her. I couldn't hear anything.

"It's a nightmare." I finally snarled back, but he didn't mind getting smart with his mother at the moment_. I mean, this isn't real life anyway, _I reminded myself, _this is just one fucked up sleeping experience that will soon be over._ But when I opened my eyes and saw my dead mother standing right before me, still in that calm position with her blue electric eyes downcast at me, my legs betrayed me and followed her as she led from out of the house and into the unusually empty street. "Where are you taking me, mom? I'm waiting for Bella, she's bound to get back anytime and I cant just run off with a hallucination-"

"This is real." Darla suddenly spoke, cutting my feelings like a knife. I never liked when she took a higher tone with me, it made me feel so insecure and unsure of myself; I was big bad Emmett McCartney, I wasn't suppose to be second guessing myself and fearing a woman half my size. But she was nonetheless my mother and I refused to cause her anymore distaste. "What you have with Bella is the illusion, none of it is real." Again, she used her tongue to cut me into three different parts. Bella wasn't real? So, she was basically trying to say my entire life wasn't real then? "It was a gift I was able to give you, but it had a deadline, just as everything else in this world does."

"I met Isabella Marie Swan, 21 years of age, two years ago, on July 5th, 2011! Her older brother is my best friend, Commanding Officer Edward Cullen, whom married Rosalie Hale when we were nine years younger-" I began to recite the facts that I absolutely knew about Bella and my world, but my mother successfully hushed me with one hand.

"No, that's not the truth. Think, son, _really _try to remember it." We maintained eye contact for the longest time, and it was like she was trying to force certain thoughts into my head. I opened my mouth to shout an obscenity driven by confusion, anger, and impatience, but something stopped me. A memory, one that seemed so foggy and far off, stopped me right dead in my tracks.

"_What am I suppose to do? I know, I'm trying to be as quiet as I can." Rosalie's hiccups and sobs dipped far into her sloppy words. "I'm young, Bella, what am I doing here in this hell hole? Yes, I know, but…" I wasn't sure just where I was in the house, but I remember hearing her clear as day from wherever the fuck I was. "Bella, your husband still has both of his legs!" It was as if someone ran at me with a steak knife and stuck deep down into my heart, twisting and turning it, pulling it out and driving it back in; she ranted on about some more bullshit that she felt was just too unfair about her life. Finally after a few minutes, she slammed the landline phone down angrily and stomped her way through the house._

_It came to me. This was August of 2011, when I lost my lower extremities to an explosion in battle… we were in Afghanistan, I was with Edward Cullen and Eric Masen, two of the bravest men that I knew in battle. We were warriors, I could remember that. But we all lost something when we came back to the States, and some of us were better off, others were lowered into the ground._

My focus came back to life and there Darla McCartney was, eyeing me with the greatest emotion of all- relief. "It still hurts so bad." I admitted lowly, looking down at my legs- so that meant that this was in fact just one big "gift" from something otherworldly. I _was _married to Rosalie, I _did _lose my legs, I _did _let Bella out of my grasp, she _was _the one that got away… floods of memories returned to me at that point, wherein images of me making love to Rosie and flashes of some of the very last arguments we had together zoomed right past me. She was always the beautiful one, the bombshell with a quick mouth to sell her personality; the polar opposite of Bella, whom I was fully aware had one of the biggest crushes on me. "Rosalie lost the baby at six months." Lonely tears fell from my face at that thought, a sentence I never once uttered when I was around anyone. "She left me not long after that, and she took everything." Why I was saying these painful things aloud, I would never know. This was so tortuous to do, cleanse myself of every negative deed and occasion that happened to me in life. "Bella came to visit me once, after everything happened, I remember that. But I blew her off and refused to answer the door." I gritted my teeth at the recollection, balled fists at my side, but I went on. "I didn't even offer her a place to stay the while she visited. I… heard that she left back to California that very same night." I angrily brushed away the tears that felt so humiliating.

Nine years of friendship was what we all shared between myself, Edward, his sister Rosalie, Alice and her husband, and Bella. Immediately, Alice and Officer Whitlock were married, I followed a few years down when Rosalie was actually _legal, _and Edward and Bella… I wasn't even invited to their church wedding. My marriage to Rosalie three years into everything brought upon a strong tension that no word could ever fix, not that I even tried apologizing to Bella for blowing her off the way I did. I didn't see Rosalie's spoiled ways, I was so ass-in and knee deep that I couldn't even breathe on my own towards the end. Just past our first year anniversary was when Afghanistan happened, and that changed everything in slow downward spiral. "How long have I been like this?" I asked suddenly, kind of not wanting to know. The last thing I could remember was one last heated argument over the phone with Edward, a man I had once called my brother on the field, and we declared an angry and violent hatred for one another. Gosh, that was so long ago… at least, it felt like it. When exactly did I die? Was it long after that phone call? Or was it right after?

"Like what? You've always been Emmett." My mother seemed to play coy with me.

"Don't jerk me around, Mom." It seemed I would have to be more specific with my questions. "How long have I been dead? How did I die? Why don't I remember it?"

My mother sent me another rueful look before taking my hand in hers. "Are those the questions that you truly wish to ask?" Was this some sort of test? Was I in heaven or hell? Surely, God didn't let his deceased suffer like this when they were in heaven. But there was no fucking way my mother was in hell, but there she was standing beside me. Darla sighed softly and swung our hands back and forth as she did when I was a young kid and walked me about. "We're in a limbo right now, Emmie, neither of us can move past this world and onto the next yet. There were too many things we hadn't yet come to terms with."

I thought about the fact that she didn't answer any of the questions I asked, just the one question I _hadn't _asked. "You said this was a gift, to see Bella and make all of this happen… a gift from who?"

She smiled smally. "From your mother, of course. I know the things that you truly need, not necessarily the things you think you want." A dark expression passed over her face for a second, and a tiny tear escaped her eye. "You needed Bella, your soul could not rest until you felt as through you could resolve things with her! Emmie, we're all granted a gift when our souls are called back home. This was yours."

I swallowed another lump in my already constricted throat. As we walking in the direction of nowhere, I felt as slow we were slowly reaching our destination. "And what was your so rightfully "God given" gift, mom?" Even in this moment, I found a small spot to slide a joke in.

Darla McCartney's lower lip wobbled dangerously as she touched at my face gingerly, the way only a mother can. "I was able to make you happy one last time."

Her words stung me so hard in my face that I felt as though my chest was nearly collapsing and the world beneath me was falling; she did all of this for me. She didn't use her last wish to spend it with the love of her life, or wrapped up in my childhood once more. She used to make sure I was given closure, to help me on my way to recovering from an entire world of hurt. "You wasted it on me." I suddenly felt seventeen again, confused and hurt all alone in a zone of discomfort. When she died, a very large piece of me died right along with her.

"Nothing is wasted if it's spent on the one you love." My mom flashed me one of her all-knowing smirks, as if to only repeat what I seemed to think all along. True love won out in the end, and it was the type of thing that stayed with you even when everything else was clearly out of your line of vision.

"So… tell me, Mom, I just need to know. How did it happen?" I begged her with my eyes to not play dumb as she did earlier.

She took the subtle meaning of my words and sighed almost painfully, this probably was not easy to do, but I _needed _her to do this and she fully understood that. "It was the Whitlock's ninth anniversary which would have made it everyone's ninth year of being friends as well.. If you all were in fact still friends, which wasn't the case. You were invited, you even boarded a plane with an assisting nurse to make it to the San Diego beach reception. I watched you get out of the car, go to the front doors of the small chapel, and I cried when I saw you turn back around and get in your car. Edward called you the next day, outraged that you decided not to show up at the private ceremony where you were greatly needed."

I stopped her there, I felt no need for her to explain anything else. I could remember it so vividly now- hell, I could smell the ocean and hear the seagulls above me. With a harsh shake of my head, I gripped both of her hands in mine. "He called me a pathetic cripple for not attending; I just didn't want them to see me like that, with no legs. I wanted them to remember me as the runner and the trainer and the Navy SEAL, not some charity case." For once, my mother didn't correct me or even try to over-console me, she just nodded in agreement.

"I can understand that. But the next few days… I mean, Emmie, what were you thinking?" There was heartbreak evident in her voice but I couldn't fight my eyes to look up at her face- I knew there would be disappointment written all over her features. "Bella came of her own accord, against Edward's wishes, to see you. And with not even an explanation, you sent her off your doorstep with _death _threats! She loved you, after all of those years, and besides everything that happened. Rosalie hit the road after a less-than-perfect five year run… she didn't even stay long enough to properly mourn your daughter."

A painful gasp left my mouth at her words. "A daughter? Is that… why you sent me Sophie?" Without even a spoken confirmation from her, I turned on my heel and looked around at all of my bland surroundings. I wanted to crush something, to hit someone hard in the face and break some bones for once! Sophie slipped right through my fingers, and if I had only known my mother sent her in place of the daughter I was never able to take care of… God, I would have done so many things differently. Instead of utilizing my anger out something nearby, I folded my legs beneath me and sat down Indian style on the green grass beneath me. I covered my face in shame as the water works began; I didn't enjoy letting others see me cry, it was a horrible weakness of mine. "I fucked everything up, Mom. I fucked it up twice."

"Hush, my child. Things happened the way that they had to. I wasn't allowed to give you a happy ending or some fairy tale that lasted through the ages; I was able to give you one year in the life of the Emmett Michael McCartney that you truly wanted to be." Darla tried to soothe me, but there was just no stepping away from this revelation.

"She would have been six." I pushed the images of sweet little Sophie away from my mind, trying my hardest to convince my brain that _this _was not happening to me. Sophie wasn't my daughter, she was just a figment of my imagination. I had no daughter! My ex-wife miscarried when she was in her second trimester, we hadn't even found out the sex of the baby yet. Sophia was not my daughter! Sophia was just a made up part of this nightmare my mother orchestrated for me with the best intentions at heart. "I had her so close, and I left! You gave me the opportunity to hug and kiss and love her like a father and I ran like a coward." I ended bitterly, allowing the salty tears of regret fall freely now. There was nothing more to be ashamed of.

Her hand on my shoulder brought my attention back to her. The loose grin on her face was so out of place in my intense moment of mental breakdown mode, it really caused me to think that I lost it for good. "Just guess who you get to see at the end of our journey."

**A/N:**

**THIS IS THE SECOND TO LAST CHAPTER.**

**ONE MORE WILL BE UPLOADED WITHIN THE NEXT TWO MONTHS.**

**REVIEW. FALL IN LOVE. CRY. GET YOUR HEART BROKEN.**

**THIS IS TRUTH.**


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